List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Jun-11
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
The article provides an overview of how overfishing affects readers’ personal health, including the ecological balance of our waters, development of drug-resistant bacteria and the amount of pollutants and nutrients in the fish we eat. The author traveled to Alaska to explore sustainable salmon-fishing efforts and learn how, imperfect as they are, methods like these help protect the public health. This travelogue is complemented by consumer advice on how to find the healthiest and most sustainable fish, including swaps readers can make to replace fish that are endangered in their diet. The result is a consumer-friendly guide that makes a very complicated and remote-seeming issue understandable and urgent for a broad general audience.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Reporting relied on at least 30 studies on trends in fish populations, contamination levels of farmed and wild fish, the role of aquaculture in antibacterial resistance, jellyfish swarms, ocean acidity, and more. Government databases provided information on commercial fishing stocks, importing rates, and recommended fish consumption. Online databases of the Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch were helpful for determining specific recommendations of sustainable fish species. Marion Nestle’s “What to Eat” provided a useful overview of fish safety issues. Finally, materials from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute clearly outlined the complicated regulatory system governing fishing in that state.
Explain types of human sources used.
Reporting in Alaska included interviews with fisherman, observation of their methods, and tours of three fish processing plants in Anchorage, Sand Point, and Kings Cove. On site interviews were also conducted with officials from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Aleutia Seafood. Members of the local Inuit community were able to describe the history of the area and the role of indigenous peoples in the birth and growth of the fishing industry. In accordance with Self magazine research standards, at least one author of every study consulted was interviewed to confirm the characterization of their research and any health recommendations made based on it. Key input came from scientists affiliated with: University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre Stanford University Dauphin Island Sea Lab Consumer groups and advocates were also helpful, including experts from Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, Blue Ocean Institute, and the Marine Stewardship Council.
Results:
The story received an extremely positive response from readers, who were grateful for the focus on environmental health issues and the specific guidance on what to eat.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
Due to a copy-editing error after fact checking was completed, the fish species pollock, was misspelled as pollack. Pollock is the preferred spelling of Alaskan seafood officials.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Our goal at Self is to highlight the connection between sometimes remote or wonky-feeling policy issues and the immediate health of our 7 million readers. This was especially important in covering seafood sustainability, which is often seen purely as an environmental issue without recognition of what’s at stake at the consumer level. Exploring the link in numerous ways–including the purity of the water we drink, pollutants within our fish, coastal algae contamination, antibiotic resistance, and even the risk for jellyfish bites–helped to keep readers engaged and convinced this is a topic that affects their health. Overfishing is a highly politicized and controversial topic, with leading scientists disagreeing sometimes on basic science. One marine biologist even likened it to global warming. It’s important to vet all studies and sources for possible conflicts of interest and potential influence of the fishing industry, and to understand the backgrounds and biases of everyone interviewed. Even knowing that fish recommendations from an East coast group can differ from experts on the West coast can be helpful. The bottom line advice is that which applies to every story: The more people you talk to, and the more you observe the fisherman at work with your own eyes, the better by far.