Adina Batnitsky Receives Award at V.I.P. Reception and E.A.R.T.H. Awards

Adina Batnitzky (Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of San Diego) and Theresa Sinicrope Talley (PhD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) are seeking to understand the barriers to availability of local seafood, and to address those barriers by bringing together the public, the restaurant community, fishermen and aquafarmers.

Batnitzky and Talley were honored for their work at the V.I.P. (Very Important Planet) Reception and E.A.R.T.H. Awards, which recognized 12 other individuals and organizations taking action to create a clean, healthy future.

Along with collecting project data, Batnitzky and Talley have engaged in outreach, such as the development of informational materials, and dockside seafood tastings and mixers, hosted in local restaurants, that increased interaction between local chefs, the public, seafood producers and scientists.

Using participants’ surveys and post-event surveys, Talley and Batnitzky have found that people’s awareness of responsibly sourced seafood has already increased. Familiarity increases both demand, with 86 percent of people more willing to buy a seafood item again after they had tried it once, and adventurousness, with 75 percent of people willing to buy a seafood completely new to them after having learned more about the local fisheries and fishermen

Their program will continue into the future by working towards this goal of strengthening local seafood supply chains.