EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


* Recent concerns regarding chemical contamination and bacterial and viral pathogens in seafood have prompted
 interest in obtaining more accurate estimates of seafood consumption for Florida residents. As a result of these
 concerns, the Florida Agricultural Market Research Center conducted a year-long study to determine per capital
 seafood consumption by Floridians in 1993-1994. The result of this study was the FAMRC Industry Report
 94-2, "Per Capita Fish and Shellfish Consumption in Florida."

* This study provides further analysis of the State sample of 8,000 households interviewed for the above
 mentioned study. For analytical purposes, the seafood species were grouped into nine classes: 1) freshwater
 bottom feeders, 2) freshwater crustaceans, 3) freshwater predators, 4) marine crustaceans, 5) marine finfish,
 6) marine mollusks, 7) freshwater panfish, 8) processed finfish and 9) shark.

* Estimates of percentiles from the distribution of seafood consumed for population subgroups and seafood
 classes are provided. These percentiles are derived from the State sample of randomly selected adults (RSA)
 database and the State sample of householders database. The distributions of per capital weekly seafood
 consumption are presented, in grams, for nine different seafood classes, overall and by gender and race (white
 and nonwhite).

* In order to identify any geographical patterns in Florida seafood consumption, the average seafood
 consumption by the randomly selected adults was calculated for each county and ranked. These calculations
 were done for each of the nine seafood groupings and the means were taken across the entire sample of both
 eaters and non-eaters of seafood. The counties were then ranked from highest to lowest average consumption
 and grouped according to their consumption levels.

* Freshwater bottom feeders (freshwater catfish) appear to be consumed throughout the state with concentrations
 of higher consumption in the central lakes area and scattered counties in the panhandle and northwestern
 Florida.

* The consumption of freshwater crustaceans (freshwater crayfish) appears to be light and scattered throughout
 the state with no areas of concentrated consumption.

* The consumption of freshwater predators (mainly largemouth bass) also appears to be scattered throughout the
 state. Concentrations of highest consumption appear to be in Jackson/Gadsden counties (Lake Seminole and
 Lakes Talquin and Jackson), Madison county, Gilchrist county (Suwannee River), and Charlotte county.

* Marine crustaceans (mainly shrimp), though not to the extent of marine finfish, are also eaten rather uniformly
 throughout the state. Areas of higher average consumption appear to be around the Choctawhatchee Bay-St.
 Joseph's Bay area and Apalachicola River, the Steinhatchee-Waccasassa Bay area, southwestern Florida and
 the Keys, the central Florida intercoastal waterway area and around the mouth the of St. Johns River.

* Marine finfish appear to be eaten quite widely throughout the state. As expected, the highest consumption
 averages were found among coastal counties. Counties with lower consumption averages are those that are
 landlocked.

* Marine mollusks (mostly oysters and clams) also appear to be eaten throughout the state with areas of higher
 average consumption around the Apalachicola Bay, Charlotte Harbor and the Steinhatchee-Waccasassa Bay
 areas.