Community-Based Outreach to At-Risk Urban Anglers: The Results of an Urban Angler Survey. Kerry Kirk Pflugh, Lynette Lurig, Leighann Von Hagen, and Stanley Von Hagen, Division of Science and Research, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 401 East State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625; and Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ
In 1982, research conducted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) showed elevated levels of chemical contaminants in certain fish and crabs in the Newark Bay Complex. The Newark Bay Complex includes tidal portions of New Jersey’s Newark Bay, Hackensack River, Passaic River, Arthur Kill, and Kill van Kull. It is a highly industrialized urban area including five counties and more than 20 local governments with a large racially-mixed population of more than three million. Subsequently, the State of New Jersey adopted advisories to guide citizens on safe fish consumption practices. Since then, the State has issued fish consumption advisories primarily through the Fish and Game Digest, a publication distributed to licensed anglers at the point of purchase of a fishing license. However, anglers in the Complex are not required to have a fishing license because the waters are estuarine. Therefore, most anglers in this area do not receive advisory information unless they purchase a fishing license for fresh water fishing. As a result, a three-year community based public outreach effort was initiated in the Fall of 1993 to reach urban anglers with fish consumption advisory information. This outreach effort was unique for two reasons: 1) it attempted to deal with the inequity of traditional communication channels by identifying citizen leaders in the affected communities to direct the information program, and 2) it employed local strategies that take into account local concerns, customs and issues in developing the outreach effort. A mid term evaluation of the outreach effort was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the strategy in discouraging consumption of contaminated fish and crabs. The evaluation suggested that for the most part, urban anglers still were either unfamiliar with fish consumption advisories or largely ignoring them. This pointed to a need for a better understanding of the urban anglers in the Newark Bay Complex and their perception of the safety of fish to eat, knowledge of health effects from consumption of contaminated fish and crabs and consumption patterns. An urban angler survey was developed to obtain this information. The purpose of the survey was to develop a more accurate profile of urban anglers in order to create an outreach strategy that addressed the barriers anglers identify to compliance with fish consumption advisories. The results include a discussion of urban anglers’: 1) knowledge of fish consumption advisories, 2) belief in the advisories, 3) perception of how safe fish are to eat, 4) sources for information about fish and fishing, 5) channels trusted to deliver this information, and 6) consumption patterns of urban anglers. A discussion of how the results will help design a communication plan that takes into account concerns and issues raised by urban anglers also will be presented.
Work supported by a grant from EPA Region II.