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The year 2016 will be pivotal for organic aquaculture producers in EU, because it represents the deadline for implementing the complete organic life cycle in aquaculture production. Depending on the sturdiness of farms already producing, such a shift in the industry may affect production costs of exclusively using organic fry for production. If the profitability of the primary organic aquaculture producers should be maintained, then farmers must be able to correspondingly receive higher prices, transmitted through the value chain from the retail market. This study identifies the price premium for organic salmon in Danish retail sale using consumer panel scanner data from households by applying a random effect hedonic price model that permits unobserved household heterogeneity. A price premium of 20% was identified for organic salmon. The magnitude of this premium is comparable to organic labeled agricultural products and higher than that of eco-labeled capture fishery products, such as the Marine Stewardship Council. This indicates that the organic label also used for agricultural products may be better known and trusted among consumers than the eco-labels on capture fishery products.

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Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential market impacts of the use of insect-based protein for fish feed as an innovative approach out of the fish-meal trap. Design/methodology/approach-An online questionnaire was used to elicit information on fish consumption choices among 610 German consumers using a discrete choice experiment. Mixed logit and latent class logit models were used to model consumers' preference heterogeneity. Findings-Results show that consumers' preferences for fish attributes such as filets, freshness, ecolabelling and domestic production are heterogeneous and important in consumption choices. The minor share of the respondents is sensitive, while the remaining is indifferent regarding the use of insect based protein as feed in trout production. For this sensitive segment, consumption would be expected to be reduced unless the price is reduced or other attributes such as convenience aspects are improved. Research limitations/implications-The implication is that firms can substitute without a significant impact on the market demand given that the majority of consumers are indifferent regarding feed sources for trout production. As a result, it provides an innovative way to ensure sustainable use of resources and reduces the threat of fish meal trap while reducing pressure on the already over-exploited marine life. Originality/value-The results provide first insights into the market impact of using insects in the animal protein value chain. It is important especially with Europe's recent lift of the ban on using insect-based protein in the animal food industry.

Knowledge of people's understanding of environmental problems is vital for the effective implementation of the ecosystem approach to marine management. This is especially relevant when conservation goals are aimed at ecosystems in the deep-sea that are remote to the consciousness of most people. This study explores public perceptions of the deep-sea environment among the Scottish and Norwegian public. It further analyses the relationships between respondents' pro-environmental concerns toward the marine environment and personal characteristics using a multiple indicators multiple causes model. The results show that public knowledge of the deep-sea environment is low for Scottish and moderate for Norwegians. Awareness of cold-water corals was high for the Lofoten case study area amongst the Norwegian public and low for the Mingulay reef complex in the Scottish case. These differences might arise because Norway is known to host the world's largest cold-water corals in the Lofoten area; a fact that has been well-publicized. We find that most people think changes in the deep-sea have at least some effect on them. On average, the public perceive the deep-sea condition to be at most "fairly good" but are dissatisfied with the management of it with approximately only one third or less thinking it is well-managed. Generally, the public perception from both countries show ecocentric attitudes toward the marine environment implying that they recognize the value of ecosystem services, the current ecological crisis and the need for sustainable management.

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In this study the discrete choice experiment approach was employed in a survey of the Scottish general public to analyse how respondents make trade-offs between blue growth potential and marine ecosystem service delivery associated with the Mingulay cold water reef complex.Results indicate a higher willingness to pay for management options associated with the highest possible levels of marine litter control followed by the highest possible levels of fish health.Using entropy balancing, a multivariate reweighting method to produce balanced samples in observational studies, we also test the impact that having watched the BBC Blue Planet II documentary series may have had on individuals' willingness to support marine conservation activity. Whether or not respondents had seen the BBC Blue Planet II series was found to have a significant impact on people's preferences. Despite this, the willingness to pay (WTP) does not differ between the two groups suggesting that such documentaries may impact preferences but not the final action of WTP. It is argued that the entropy weighting approach can be a useful tool in discrete choice modelling when the researcher is concerned with estimating differences in preferences between a group of interest and a comparison group.