Are all benefits equal? An exploratory analysis of coastal perspectives of seafood farming expansion in the United States

Seafood farming is heralded for its economic opportunities and its potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food production. Yet the persistent lack of awareness among the US public about these potential benefits of seafood farming is often cited as a barrier to social acceptance and industry growth. We employed two exploratory online surveys of residents of western and northeastern US coastal states and a unique message-testing approach to explore: (1) how existing opinions about seafood farming vary across sociodemographic attributes, geography, and prior familiarity with aquaculture; (2) the malleability of opinions about seafood farming; and (3) what benefits of marine aquaculture broadly and of seaweed farming specifically were viewed as the strongest reasons to support industry expansion, and what messengers are most trusted to share that information. We found that baseline attitudes about seafood farming strongly correlate with prior familiarity and that opinions about both marine aquaculture and seaweed farming were highly malleable, at least in the short term. If confirmed by further studies, our results suggest that messages emphasizing benefits in terms of environmental sustainability, as opposed to economic benefits or social benefits, may be an important tool to better engage residents of western and northeastern US coastal states with seafood farming expansion.