Evaluating and Communicating Subsistence Seafood Safety in a Cross-Cultural Context: Lessons Learned from the Exxon Valdez Spill (Setac Technical Publications Series)

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill caused many residents of Prince William Sound, Lower Cook Inlet, and Kodiak Island villages to question whether their traditional subsistence shellfish, fish, and marine mammal resources were contaminated with oil from the spill and no longer safe to eat. This book addresses the response to the disaster by the subsistence-based Native Alaskans for whom the spill area in and around Prince William Sound had been home for thousands of years.

This monograph documents the response to the multi-disciplinary issues relating to subsistence food safety, including the approaches to risk assessment and risk communication, with an emphasis on the lessons learned from the response efforts. The contributors to this book share their firsthand experiences in tackling the subsistence seafood-safety issues that arose from the spill and the important lessons learned.