Fish out of water: consumer perceptions of aquaculture and food security in Eleuthera, The Bahamas

This study examines consumer perceptions of aquaculture products in Eleuthera, The Bahamas, within the broader context of food security and seafood import dependence in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). A mixed-method community survey (n = 63) combining quantitative responses and coded qualitative analysis was conducted across South, Central, and North Eleuthera. Results revealed strong cultural preference for wild-caught marine species and limited familiarity with freshwater aquaculture species such as tilapia. While respondents expressed skepticism related to taste, quality, and freshwater origin, overall acceptance of aquaculture products was relatively high, with the majority demonstrating conditional willingness to purchase farmed products when quality, transparency, and price were favorable. Environmental sustainability and food security were frequently identified as perceived benefits. Statistical analysis indicated a weak, non-significant relationship between knowledge of aquaculture and acceptance, suggesting that awareness alone does not strongly influence consumer attitudes. Instead, findings align with Caribbean and global literature indicating that consumer trust, sensory quality, and cultural familiarity are primary determinants of aquaculture adoption. The study highlights the importance of social license to operate in shaping aquaculture development in The Bahamas, emphasizing the need for culturally aligned species selection, transparent production systems, and community engagement to support sustainable marine food systems in island contexts.

The Bahamas imports over 90% of its food, creating structural vulnerabilities in national food security (Eneas, 2024). Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face compounding challenges including limited arable land, climate variability, and high dependence on imported protein sources.

In the heavily tourism-dependent economy of The Bahamas today, domestic food production remains below 10% of the nation's total consumption. In addition, limestone-heavy, infertile soils throughout the country's islands, alongside limited freshwater resources, have made traditional agriculture difficult to sustain (Eneas, 2024). The Food and Agriculture Organization coined the “double burden of malnutrition,” which often afflicts Caribbean nations, where undernutrition and poor diets lead to significant health issues such as obesity and other non-communicable diseases (Blazy et al., 2021). This often manifests in The Bahamas through an overabundance of unhealthy and processed food, primarily imported from the United States of America (International Trade Administration., 2026). Aquaculture has been proposed as a viable pathway to enhance healthy domestic seafood production while reducing pressure on wild fisheries and increasing resilience to global supply disruptions.

Global production in aquaculture continues to increase, growing from 17 million tons of product in 1990 to over 100 million tons at present (Bostock et al., 2010; Ashton et al., 2019). While global wild fish catch plateaued at 90–95 million tons in the 1990's, aquaculture-grown fish production has only increased (Ashton et al., 2019). Despite global growth in aquaculture production (Wang et al., 2015), freshwater species such as Nile tilapia remain culturally unfamiliar and often viewed with skepticism (Watanabe et al., 2002), particularly in the Bahamian context, where seafood consumption is strongly linked to wild-caught marine species such as Nassau grouper and mutton snapper (Matich et al., 2025). A study regarding farm-raised Norwegian salmon established that matching aquaculture product availability with consumer outreach on the product's safety and its alignment with health and sustainability goals is a critical component of growth in the aquaculture sector (Menozzi et al., 2025). Social license of acceptance refers to the relationship between the development of an industry and its societal acceptance (Alexander, 2025). In the context of SIDS, understanding consumer perceptions is therefore essential to establishing successful aquaculture integration within marine-dependent island food systems (Acosta et al., 2021; Budhathoki et al., 2024).

At the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI), aquaculture plays a fundamental role in not only feeding the Island School population through a sustainable aquaponics system but also serving as a demonstration to local food producers to develop and exploit niche markets and maximize profit potential while balancing sustainability. However, consumer hesitation surrounding Nile tilapia, and other freshwater fish more broadly, poses a cultural and market-based challenge to the widespread acceptance of aquaculture across The Bahamas.

This student-led research project investigated consumer attitudes toward aquaculture, consumption patterns, and willingness to adopt farm-raised seafood in Eleuthera. The Bahamas. While other studies have evaluated consumer perceptions of aquaculture products, many were conducted in primarily highly developed countries with already established aquaculture sectors. This study narrows the scope of global aquaculture perspectives, adding nuance with strong cultural skepticism toward modern aquaculture. The Bahamas is in a unique position to benefit immensely from domestic aquaculture production if social stigma can be overcome while increasing investment in the sector.

A mixed-method survey comprising 26 quantitative and qualitative questions was distributed across South, Central, and North Eleuthera via printed surveys, QR-code posters, and digital forms. Seven students participating in the Fall 2025 semester program at the Cape Eleuthera Island School conducted in-person outreach in two settlements in North Eleuthera, and four settlements in South Eleuthera, administering surveys directly to members of the public as part of a research project guided by researchers at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, as shown in Figure 1 below.

The research team subsequently left posters in these locations to allow additional residents to submit responses independently. After removing incomplete and non-responses, a total of 63 valid responses were retained for analysis.

Qualitative responses were thematically coded using a structured coding framework including Taste/Flavor, Quality, Price/Cost, Health/Nutrition, Environmental Sustainability, and Information/Source Transparency. Multi-node coding was applied where responses referenced multiple factors. Closely related terms were standardized to ensure consistency and traceability (Saidi et al., 2022).

Descriptive statistics and thematic frequency analysis were used to identify dominant perception patterns influencing aquaculture acceptance. The integration of quantitative trends with qualitative thematic responses provided additional contextual insight into the sociocultural drivers shaping consumer perceptions.

Survey responses were converted into ordinal variables and combined to construct a composite aquaculture acceptance index. Specifically, willingness to purchase aquaculture-grown products, willingness to consume farm-raised lobster, and willingness to consume farm-raised conch were recoded into ordinal variables (0 = no, 1 = maybe/neutral, 2 = yes/more inclined) and summed to produce an overall acceptance score. All analyses were conducted in R (RStudio 2026.01.2+418). A Kruskal–Wallis test was used to assess the relationship between age and acceptance. The relationship between knowledge of aquaculture and acceptance was evaluated using non-parametric methods appropriate for ordinal data. A Spearman rank correlation was used to assess the association between knowledge and acceptance, and the resulting coefficient was interpreted according to (Bryman and Cramer 2011) such that 0.00–0.19 = very weak, 0.20–0.39 = weak, 0.40–0.69 = moderate, 0.70–0.89 = strong, and 0.90–1.00 = very strong. Following that, a Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare acceptance scores between respondents with and without prior knowledge of aquaculture. Kendall's tau correlation was also calculated to confirm the robustness of the results. Exploratory linear regression analysis was conducted to visualize directional trends between aquaculture knowledge and the composite acceptance index, treating the index as an approximate continuous variable for descriptive purposes only.

Due to the presence of tied ranks in the data, approximate p -values were reported. Given the ordinal nature of the data and the exploratory scope of the study, results were interpreted cautiously, with emphasis placed on identifying directional trends rather than statistical significance.

Survey responses indicated that seafood sourcing in Eleuthera is primarily dependent on local fishers and self-caught fishing, reflecting a hybrid subsistence-market food system. Supermarkets and restaurants were secondary sourcing channels.

Species consumption patterns showed strong cultural preference for reef-associated marine fish such as snapper and grouper, while tilapia appeared infrequently in reported diets. Taste and texture were the most frequently cited factors influencing acceptance of aquaculture products, with several respondents expressing concerns regarding freshwater flavor and perceived product quality.

Despite skepticism, most participants expressed conditional willingness to purchase aquaculture products if price, taste, and quality were comparable to wild-caught seafood. Environmental sustainability and food security were commonly identified as perceived benefits. Transparency regarding production methods and product origin emerged as a critical determinant of consumer trust.

Participants expressed the highest interest in locally farming culturally familiar marine species, including snapper, grouper, lobster, and conch, rather than introduced freshwater species (Figure 2). Overall, findings indicate that aquaculture acceptance in Eleuthera is shaped by sensory perception, cultural and generational (age) familiarity, and trust in production systems rather than cost alone (Figure 3).

An exploratory composite acceptance index was constructed using willingness to purchase aquaculture-grown products, farm-raised lobster, and conch. Descriptive analysis indicated generally high levels of acceptance, with a median and maximum score of 6 (possible range: 0–6) and a mean of 4.68 (Figure 4). A Kruskal–Wallis test indicated no significant differences in acceptance across age groups (p = 0.73). However, descriptively, older respondents (60+) exhibited lower mean acceptance scores (mean = 4.0) compared to respondents aged 20–40 (mean = 5.0).

A Spearman rank correlation indicated a very weak, non-significant positive association between knowledge of aquaculture and acceptance (ρ = 0.14, p = 0.376). Kendall's tau and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests showed similar non-significant patterns. Exploratory linear regression, included only to visualize directional trends, also showed a weak positive but non-significant association (β = 0.44, p = 0.607; R 2 = 0.024). These results suggest that while awareness may play a role, knowledge alone has a limited association with acceptance (R 2 = 0.02), and other factors such as cultural preferences, perceived quality, and trust may also influence consumer attitudes.

This pattern was consistent across individual measures. Approximately 75% of respondents indicated willingness to purchase aquaculture-grown products, while 77 and 73% expressed willingness to consume farm-raised lobster and conch, respectively. These findings indicate a broadly positive disposition toward aquaculture products. The clustering of responses toward higher scores suggests a potential ceiling effect, which may have limited variability within the dataset

The findings of relatively high acceptance of aquaculture align with broader Caribbean and global aquaculture perception literature, which identifies taste, cultural familiarity, and transparency as key determinants of consumer acceptance (Saidi et al., 2022; Verbeke et al., 2007). Resistance to freshwater species, such as tilapia, has been documented in multiple island and coastal regions despite their global aquaculture prominence (Watanabe et al., 2002). Respondents with greater awareness of aquaculture generally demonstrated slightly higher acceptance of aquaculture products; however, these relationships were weak and not statistically significant. While some studies identify awareness and familiarity as important drivers of consumer acceptance (Mazur and Curtis, 2008; Whitmarsh and Palmieri, 2011), the findings of this study suggest that cultural familiarity, sensory perception, and trust in production systems may exert a stronger influence on consumer attitudes in small island contexts. Similar concerns surrounding taste, quality, and production transparency have been widely documented in aquaculture perception literature (Verbeke et al., 2007; Menozzi et al., 2025). The relatively high willingness to consume culturally familiar marine species despite limited formal knowledge of aquaculture further suggests that consumer openness may depend more heavily on species-specific familiarity and perceived product quality than on technical understanding alone.

This study provides one of the first aquaculture acceptance assessments in The Bahamas, a small island state where seafood consumption is deeply embedded in both cultural identity and livelihoods (Béné et al., 2016). Previous research has largely focused on consumer acceptance in large-scale aquaculture contexts, while this study highlights the distinct role of sociocultural factors in shaping acceptance in island food systems. In particular, the findings demonstrate that although knowledge of aquaculture was positively associated with acceptance, this relationship was weak and not statistically, indicating that cultural familiarity, taste perception, and trust in production systems may be more influential drivers. Overall, these results point to the concept of social license to operate, the idea that any emerging industry requires genuine community approval to be successful. In the case of aquaculture in Eleuthera, that approval exists, but remains conditional, with many respondents indicating willingness to consume aquaculture products only when concerns related to quality, safety, price, and environmental impact are addressed. An additional pattern observed in the data was a lower willingness to consume aquaculture products among older respondents (60+) compared to those aged 20–40. While this trend was not statistically significant and should be interpreted cautiously, it may reflect generational differences in attitudes toward food systems, with older individuals potentially more strongly aligned with traditional fishing practices and younger respondents more open to innovation in food production. This reinforces the need for context-specific approaches to aquaculture development in SIDS, positioning farmed seafood as complementary to traditional fisheries rather than a replacement (Bush et al., 2019; FAO, 2020). Targeted public education, transparent labeling, and community engagement are therefore likely to build and sustain community trust over time. Integrating aquaculture concepts into school curricula may further enhance long-term acceptance by increasing early familiarity and reducing misinformation (FAO, 2020; Mazur and Curtis, 2008).

In addition, 90% of respondents believed that The Bahamas needs to produce more of its own food, revealing a striking and perhaps underappreciated awareness of the structural food security challenges the country faces. The fact that most respondents already recognize this vulnerability is itself significant, suggesting that the groundwork for broader aquaculture acceptance may already exist. Respondents demonstrated awareness of the country's food security challenges while simultaneously expressing conditional acceptance of aquaculture products, particularly when concerns surrounding taste, quality, and trust were addressed. This suggests that communities concerned about food reliability may be increasingly open to culturally familiar, locally farmed seafood alternatives. If investments in aquaculture can overcome cultural resistance through targeted education and the integration of culturally aligned species, there is genuine potential for aquaculture to contribute to reducing import dependence and improving food security across the archipelago.

Conditional willingness to consume farm-raised conch and Caribbean spiny lobster suggests strong potential for culturally aligned aquaculture expansion in The Bahamas. Notably, this openness was not uniform across species, with respondents demonstrating greater acceptance of culturally significant marine species compared to freshwater species such as Nile tilapia. This finding indicates that social license in this context is shaped less by aquaculture as a concept and more by species-specific cultural familiarity. In Caribbean Island contexts, where marine species such as queen conch and Caribbean spiny lobster are central to local diets and identities, this distinction is particularly important. These findings highlight that while aquaculture has the potential to contribute to food sovereignty in The Bahamas, its success will depend on integrating sociocultural considerations into marine food system planning and aquaculture policy development in SIDS (Dongyu, 2024; Heileman, 2007; Salas-Leiton et al., 2020).

Future research with larger and more representative samples across multiple islands in The Bahamas would help to further clarify the drivers of consumer acceptance and strengthen the generalizability of these findings.