Who's Eating Seafood? 



Female over 35. Has college education. 

 Lives in Northeast. Income of $34,000. Seeks 

 a tasteful relationship. Respondents should 

 have clear eyes and firm bodies. For a siz- 

 zling evening, write Box 



What's the catch? 



Flounder, grouper, sole or tilefish. 



The woman in this fictitious ad is angling 

 for dinner. And she represents the typical 

 seafood consumer in America. 



As grocery stores and restaurants make 

 more effort to promote fish and shellfish, 

 they want to know who eats the catch and 

 what species the public hkes the best. 



The National Marine Fisheries Service 

 and the Food Marketing Institute surveyed 

 Americans to find some answers. 



The NMFS survey, completed in 1984, 

 showed that the typical seafood consumer: 



* possesses a high school education or 

 above, 



* resides along the East coast, 



* Lives in a metropolitan area of 500,000 

 or more people, 



* earns a yearly income between $25,000 

 and $35,000, and 



* is white non-Hispanic. 



In a survey of supermarket seafood shop- 

 pers, the Food Marketing Institute found 

 that 40 percent of the buyers earn over 

 $35,000 a year, and 52 percent are between 

 the ages of 25 and 44. 



What seafood is America's favorite? 



Shrimp. 



It fills more plates than any other fish or 

 shellfish. Second choice is fresh and frozen 

 white meat fillets, such as scrod, cod, floun- 

 der and haddock. 



Consumers do favor a few red- or pink- 

 meat fish, such a salmon and mackerel. And 

 cheaper, surimi-based products are becom- 

 ing palate pleasers. 



"Fifty percent of the sale is in the presenta- 

 tion," says Sea Grant researcher Tyre Lanier. 

 "The seafood can't drip or smell. It has to look 

 good." 



Education is another key factor in selling the 

 public on fish and shellfish, says Joyce Taylor, 

 Sea Grant's seafood education speciaHst. 



"Most consumers aren't comfortable with 

 seafood," she says. "They don't know how to 

 buy it, and they don't know what to do with it 

 when they get it home." 



To help shoppers, Taylor has written several 

 seafood consumer guides (A North Carolina 

 seafood seasonality poster, UNC-SG-84-04; 

 Hooked on Fresh Fish, UNC-SG-85-08; and 

 Dressing Finfish, UNC-SG-86-10). And she has 

 more planned. 



But Taylor can't educate the pubHc alone. 

 The person behind the service counter has to 

 know his seafood. 



Rick Madden buys and markets the products 

 he stocks in his seafood counter in Durham's 

 Wellspring Grocery, a store specializing in nat- 

 ural food. 



"I find that my customers want to add more 

 seafood to their menus, but they know next to 

 nothing about it," he says. 



So, Madden supplies the missing ingred- 

 ient — information. 



Drawing on the fish and shellfish reference 

 books and cookbooks behind the counter. 

 Madden tells people about the attributes 



of golden tilefish, gray trout, orange roughy, 

 and king mackerel. And he provides recipes to 

 go along with the purchase. 



"I tell people how fast and easy it is to pre- 

 pare seafood. On the average it takes about 10 

 minutes to cook, and it should be the last thing 

 you cook before you sit down at the table," he 

 says. 



"It's not like beef or poultry. When you buy 

 different cuts of these meats, you're still getting 

 beef and poultry. But every fish is different, 

 and there are so many more things you can do 

 with fish." 



Photo by Kalhy Hart 



Grocers are im- 

 proving display 

 counters 



