Living and Eating in Intertidal Nature: Community-driven shellfish consumption evaluation

PROJECT SUMMARY – PROJECT 3 Project 3 aims to evaluate community shellfish harvesting and consumption patterns and risk perceptions around PSP to develop community-specific risk profiles. In our first aim, we use in-depth interviews of community members involved in subsistence shellfish harvesting in five small Gulf of Alaska communities to assess perceptions of local and regional health risks with respect to PSP. This highly localized data may serve a critical need that is overlooked and excluded from current regulatory approaches to PSP health protection in the region. In our second aim, we develop and deploy a mix-mode (mail and web) population survey to assess the prevalence of lifetime PSP in selected Alaskan boroughs, along with demographic and cultural correlates of behavioral and dietary intentions associated with PSP risk. Survey items will be informed by aim 1 formative research as well as established instruments, and research themes identified by Tribal stakeholders as crucial for understanding the cumulative risk that communities face from toxin exposures. In our third aim, we develop and execute probabilistic health risk models based on shellfish and consumption distributions to better inform communities as to the possible risk profiles in areas where subsistence harvesting and consumption is common, especially outside of commercial sites. These models will incorporate community-specific parameters informed by aims 1 and 2 to tailor assessments and risk evaluations, and models will include climate and water quality parameters to facilitate the development of predictive, tailored risk evaluations.