Exploring Attitudes Toward Aquaculture Development in the United Kingdom: A Consultative Stakeholder Approach

ABSTRACT

This study explores attitudes toward aquaculture development as a way of providing a sustainable source of seafood through a consultative stakeholder approach. Given that aquaculture is a less familiar concept within southwest England, gaining insight into the views and perspectives of such a development in the region is required to facilitate stakeholder engagement. In-depth qualitative interviews investigate attitudes across five stakeholder sectors: government, fishing/marine, business/catering, tourism/leisure, and environmental/charity. Findings show a mix of stakeholder attitudes, which differ by industry sector, from very negative to very positive. From this, two segments are proposed (commercially focused and environmentally focused) to enable targeted communication and information dissemination strategies based on key areas of concern.

KEYWORDS:

• Aquaculture
• attitudes
• qualitative research
• segmentation
• stakeholders

Contributors

Juliet Memery is Professor in Marketing at Bournemouth University. Her early research examined the role of ethical and social responsibility issues in food and grocery shopping decisions in the UK. She continued this research, focusing in particular on food shopping behavior with regard to ethical considerations, in both Europe and Australia. Themes emerging from this research resulted in further exploration of local and regional food, and seasonal food, with current work looking at food security, sustainable fish, food waste, and consumer decision-making models.

Dawn Birch is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the Bournemouth Business School, specializing in consumer behavior. She researches and publishes in the areas of consumer behavior related to food with a special interest in local and sustainable food and seafood. Dawn has undertaken research consultancies for the Australian Queensland Government investigating consumer attitudes toward local food, and the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre researching seafood consumption behavior. Dawn has also researched in the areas of bartering and shopping center entertainment.