You Can't Catch 'Em and Sell 'Em: Perceptions of Obstacles to Direct Marketing among Georgia Fishers

Direct marketing of seafood is a promising avenue for seafood sales in the United States, utilizing local foods venues such as farmers markets and Community Supported Fisheries (CSFs). While interest in locally sourced seafood among local foods communities in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia is high, fishers from coastal Georgia have not filled this profitable niche. We investigate why this opportunity is not exploited by conducting qualitative interviews with twenty-one fishers. Fishers described numerous obstacles to direct marketing, focused on the simultaneous labor investment in on-shore and on the water efforts. In addition, fishers' concerns reveal the financial and social risks that fishers would undertake by attempting to sell seafood outside of their existing economic arrangements with docks. This relationship echoes the understudied patron-client relationships described in fisheries in Southeast Asia. We conclude with a recommendation for modifying direct marketing expectations to accommodate successful integration of seafood.

Automated summary

Fishers in Georgia face numerous obstacles in direct marketing of seafood, particularly in terms of labor investment on shore and on the water, as well as the financial and social risks involved in selling seafood outside of existing economic arrangements with docks. This relationship mirrors underexplored patron-client relationships in Southeast Asian fisheries.