Florida Seafood Brown Bag Lunch Webinar Series

In 2009 the average American ate 15.8 pounds of fish and shellfish. Though this was a slight decline from recent years, there has been a general increasing demand for seafood since the 1980s. American consumers are recognizing its health benefits and fish and shellfish varieties have become more accessible and affordable. This global food market, however, has also raised concerns about product safety and increasing local food movements are compelling people to learn more about where their food comes from and how it is produced; this is particularly true for seafood.

The United States imports approximately 84% of the seafood Americans consume. Consumer demand and preferences cannot be satisfied exclusively with local stocks. However, many Americans are unaware of where their seafood comes from, how it is managed, or what their local options are; thereby making informed purchasing decisions impossible. Florida provides a unique case-study for such a dilemma. Peninsular Florida is surrounded by two extremely productive bodies of water, the Gulf of Mexico on the west and Atlantic on the east. With more than 80 varieties of harvestable seafood, Florida ranks number one in the nation for commercially viable seafood products. Informed consumers who understand the importance of ecosystem health and sustainable harvesting practices, who appreciate the health benefits of seafood, and who understand how seafood is inspected and tested to assure saftey can feel more confident in their choices whilst contributing to the long-term health and sustainability of Florida’s seafood industry.

To address consumer needs, the Florida Sea Grant Extension Agents from Collier and Miami-Dade Counties designed a seafood webinar series using Elluminate to provide accessible seafood information to statewide clientele to help them make more informed decisions about purchasing and eating Florida seafood. The Florida Seafood Sustainability and Safety Brown Bag Webinar Series consists of seven half hour webinars scheduled once a month (January-November 2011) during the noon lunch hour so audiences can attend the sessions without leaving their offices or homes. Each of the webinars are recorded and a link to the recording is posted via email and on their website.

The initial webinar provided a general overview of why consumers should consider and learn more about local seafood options. Proceeding webinars focus on one variety of Florida seafood and addressed the ecology, sustainability, economic importance, as well as purchasing and handling tips associated with specific commercial seafood products. The interactive features of Elluminate allow participants to answer polling questions as well as asking questions about the presented materials. Each webinar highlights a new set of online resources and fact sheets are developed for each topic after the webinar session to further explain a topic presented during the webinar. Many times these fact sheets are developed as responses to questions asked during the course of the webinar. Following their participation, attendees are sent online surveys and there will also be an end-of-the-year evaluation.

At the time of submission, four of the seven webinars have been conducted. 120 participants have attended the webinars live and survey results suggest that the webinar format is a convenient way of learning new seafood information. Survey results indicate that the learning objectives for each webinar are being met and they are increasing participant understanding and confidence in Florida seafood. Participants have also indicated that the technology is interactive, convenient, and easily accessible. For each of the webinars, approximately half of the attendees are new participants whereas the other half have attended previous sessions in the series. Approximately 50% of participants have also watched the recordings of past webinars; this indicates that those participants who can’t watch live choose to watch the video recording at a later point in time. 97% of survey respondents are sharing the information that they learned with others either through conversation, sharing the recordings with other, or through classroom learning.

The webinars are also helping the project partners to achieve the goal of statewide dissemination at minimal cost. According to survey responses, participants reside in a minimum of 16 counties statewide with at least two participants attending from a state other than Florida. The majority of participants are professionally affiliated with county or state governments, non-profit organizations, academia, and private citizens. The webinar format conveniently allows county agents to collaborate on statewide programming and saves the Sea Grant program the more than $1000 in travel expenses that would be accrued otherwise.

A schedule of future webinars and recordings of past sessions are available at:

http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/environment/sea_grant_seafood.shtml