SSI Fellows

Each year, URI graduate students from various disciplines apply for the opportunity to conduct research as a URI Sustainable Seafood Fellow on a project related to the markets for seafood identified as sustainable. The goal of these projects is to inform the seafood industry, environmental community and policy makers in Rhode Island, nationally and internationally, while training graduate students in research methods.

Below are the URI Sustainable Seafood Fellows and results from their projects to date.

2010

Samuel Grimley, MMA Candidate, Department of Marine Affairs

Assessing the Market Potential for “Local” Seafood in Rhode Island: Qualitative Results of a Survey of Consumers’ Preferences and Perceptions, assesses Rhode Island consumer preferences for local seafood, and explores consumers’ perceptions of an appropriate definition of ‘local’ seafood based upon a survey of 200 consumers during the summer of 2010.

Huiqiang Wang, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

Safety and Sustainability of Seafood: Lessons from the Literature reviews the scientific literature on how health risks from consumption of chemical and inorganic contaminants relate to risks from non-consumption of beneficial nutrients from seafood. Particular focus is paid to species that are frequently mentioned in the context of sustainability. The paper also reviews the economic literature of analyses related to consumer demand for seafood, perception of seafood safety or benefits, and influence of risks on demand and extent that to which that literature illuminates risk-risk trade-offs between seafood and other non-seafood goods.

Pratheesh O. Sudhakaran, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

Ecolabeling of Seafood from Aquaculture: A Survey of Rhode Island Consumer Preferences assesses the consumer preference for ecolabeling aquacultured seafood products. This study is based on a survey conducted on 248 consumers of Rhode Island during summer 2010.

2009

Tarsila Seara, MMA, Department of Marine Affairs

Expected Benefits of Fisheries Certification: Results of a Survey of MSC Fisheries Clients determines what motivates fisheries to enter assessment for certification against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard of sustainability based upon a of fisheries clients conducted in May and June 2009.

Ronald D’silva, MESM, Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

Illustration of U.S. Organic Agricultural Produce Price Premiums: Implications for Ecolabeled Seafood Price Premiums compiles results from several research reports which show organic price premiums paid in the U.S. market, at several levels of the market, for a large variety of agricultural products to provide possible indicators of upper bounds on seafood ecolabel price premiums in the U.S. market.

Hiroki Wakamatsu, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

Revealing Potential Demand for Ecolabeled Seafood in Japanese Markets is a presentation showing some of the results of an in-depth study of Japanese consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for MSC-labeled salmon. With additional funding from WWF-US, WWF-Japan and the Asahi Beer Corporation, market experiments were conducted during the summer of 2009 revealing consumers were more willing to pay a premium for MSC labeled seafood once they were educated regarding the status of global fisheries.

2008

Michelle Armsby, MMA, Department of Marine Affairs; MBA, College of Business

A Consensus Seafood Guide evaluated and compared the extent of consensus among the several major sustainable seafood guides available during summer 2008. Results showed that while major guides often agreed, there remained many gray areas which could create significant consumer and buyer confusion.

Julie Insignares, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

The Elusive Price Premium for Ecolabeled Products: Evidence from Seafood in the U.K. Retail Sector is in review for publication at a peer-reviewed journal. This paper seeks to address the question whether or not an actual price premium is being paid by consumers for ecolabeled seafood by conducting a hedonic analysis of MSC-certified frozen processed Alaska pollock products in the UK market using scanner data. Regression results show a statistically significant premium of 14.2%, implying the potential of the MSC’s fisheries certification program to generate market incentives for sustainable fisheries practices.