Survey: NOAA Fisheries National Seafood Consumption Survey

NOAA Fisheries Office of Science & Technology conducted a seafood marketing and trade study entitled:


NOAA Fisheries National Seafood Consumption Survey (http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st5/SeafoodDemand.html)


Conducted by: Knowledge Networks (KN) for NOAA Fisheries Service


Justification
Very little is known about seafood markets. Quantifying consumer demand for inland and offshore fisheries would direct measures taken to prevent degradation of marine resources from human activities (i.e. fishing, pollution and hypoxia) and to quantify future benefits that may be obtained from plans to rebuild stocks.


Objective
To gather information about people's purchase and consumption behaviors of various seafood products and track changes and patterns in behaviors over time.


Available Information
- Overview of Survey Methodology & Implementation Strategy
- Survey Instrument (screener and online version)
- Survey Implementation Report
- Preliminary Results
- More rigorous analyses have yet to be posted


Survey Implementation Detail
Sample
Conducted over 12 consecutive months with a minimum of 800 completed interviews per month. Four of 12 cohorts were contacted three times in 12-month period, four were contacted twice and four were only contacted once. Recruitment launched on 14 Jan 2005. The last survey was completed 28 Feb 2006.


KN collected 13,049 eligible participants from the screener, 10,798 completed interviews from the main study giving an eligibility rate of 68%. Completion rates for screener and three cohorts was 80%, 80%, 75% and 81%.


Tele-marketing techniques were used from a database containing demographic and postal information. For households without a PC and Internet access they are given a WebTV set-top box and free monthly Internet access in return for completing a short weekly survey.


Sample had lower representation for households making $75,000+/year, households with 3 people, housholds in the Northeast, New England, Non-Metro, + kids and Asian households.


Methodology
For each "contact" a respondent would complete an online screener that identified the respondents' household as having purchased seafood in a retail outlet for home consumption within the last 12 months. Respondents were asked to keep receipts for restaurants and retail stores for one month. Reminder letters and emails were sent to remind respondents to collect receipts. After a "receipt collection" period respondents were sent a survey that was to be completed while referencing receipts. The incentive was 7500 bonus points (unsure of significance of points, but it is equivalent to $7.50). Points can be redeemed for cash and are given to respondents for completing surveys.


Data was collected using SAS files. each row was a seafood product for a household, so each household could have multiple rows.


Survey Questions/Depth
Questionnaire accounted for restaurant purchases. Seafood categories were surveyed at a general (i.e. salmon, lobster, tuna, etc...) and then specific level (i.e. Atlantic salmon, Chinook, spiny lobster, Gulf shrimp, etc.). Web survey narrowed down questions based on general seafood category selections. Purchases of chicken, beef and pork products were also taken into account. Total food expenditures was also asked. Seafood form such as frozen and processed were also accounted for, as well as preparation. Number of restaurant purchases and expenditures at restaurants was included. Pounds or purchase count in addition to total expenditure per specific species was collected for retail purchases.


Preliminary Results
A brief one-page report was compiled entitled "Who is eating seafood?" Interesting results are as follows:
- 65% of U.S. households purchased seafood for at-home consumption at least once in the previous year
- 83% of households purchased seafood in a restaurant in the previous year
- The categories with the highest at-home seafood consumption were households from the Northeast (vs. South, West and Midwest), "Other" racial/ethnic groups (vs. White, Black, or Hispanic) and households with income >$75,000 (vs. $50,000-$74,999, $25,000-$49,000, and <$25,000).
- Monthly purchases were similar to annual results


Opinion
The preliminary results were sparse. Considering the survey was conducted in 2006, results regarding species specific consumption should be available. I cannot decipher how the data gathered would direct measures taken to prevent degradation of marine resources from human activities (i.e. fishing, pollution and hypoxia). However, I can understand how knowing consumption patterns could help quantify future benefits that may be obtained from plans to rebuild stocks. The response rate was impressive, but I would like to see more justification for how the data was representative.