Gone Fishing: Students Conduct Research on a Risky Catch

Anthropology students Christie D’Anna, Mallory Kerwin, Meghan Strong and Sonja Ulrich presented their research on the cultural drivers behind subsistence fishing in Los Angeles at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Francisco on Nov. 22. Assisting their professor, Ana Pitchon, the students collected data and interviewed residents of Los Angeles County who fished locally and consumed their catch, which, according to Pitchon, contains above EPA levels for toxicity.

“The consumption recommendation is approximately no more than one fish per month and they’re certainly eating a lot more than that,” says the assistant professor of anthropology. “We looked at four different piers in the L.A. area and conducted surveys, ethnographic research and interviews among the people fishing off the piers in order to understand their consumption rate, how much they ate, and why they ate the fish they caught. The findings were interesting and did not support our hypothesis that people were eating for subsistence. It’s mostly for recreation.”

The project, which was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a mini-grant from CSUDH’s Sally Casanova Memorial Awards Program, will serve as the basis for creating policies that will hopefully protect those who consume the fish from illness or death by building a greater awareness of the danger involved.

“Pollution isn’t something that you can always see,” notes Kerwin. “You don’t see the health effects of it. Maybe your body won’t, but your child’s body probably will, whether you’re a nursing mother or you’re going to be a father. It can create a dramatic long term effect, and because people can’t see that immediately – [they’re] not pulling up a fish with three eyes and legs – people don’t understand the toxicity.

“People like to eat what they catch, I can understand that. But the other surprising part to me was that most people knew about the health risks to some extent, whether it was from people coming out and handling out pamphlets, or someone coming up and talking to them.”

Strong echoes Kerwin’s sentiments, saying that the fish are “some kind of trophy.”

“I grew up in the South, where when you go fishing, it’s an all-day affair, a family outing,” she says. “Then you come back and have a big fish fry. You put this effort and work into it and you want to enjoy it. People want to enjoy their family outing, but knowing there are health effects and that people eat [the fish] is kind of scary.”

Pitchon says that NOAA is interested in the cultural data that she and her students have gathered to balance their biological data, which she says “is supplementary and really important to policy making [by] understanding cultural particulars as to why people engage in this activity.”

“Without that, you can’t really promote and apply viable policy to make people stop or not consume as much,” she notes. “If it’s a cultural activity and culturally based and you’re not sensitive to what those cultures are and why people engage in that activity, it’s not going to take effect.”

According to Pitchon, some steps are already being taken. The City of Long Beach has told her that if she gets a grant she recently applied for through the California Coastal Commission, it would supply up to $25,000 in infrastructure for her to prepare permanent placards for the Long Beach pier that state the toxicity levels of specific fish caught there, as well as interpretive signs to educate the public in the overall ecology of the piers. Strong thinks that while fishing of the contaminated species will probably never cease, a more cohesive awareness campaign might help.

“People have told me they’ve gotten pamphlets from random [groups] who come out on the pier but really that there’s limited information,” she says. “People know that [the danger] is there, but they’re not sure which species to be aware of. There’s a sign that says ‘Don’t eat white croaker’ which has a really high level of toxicity. So they figure, ‘Well, maybe everything else is OK.’”

Pitchon is proud of her students, many of whom have decided to apply their experience and anthropology studies with her in ways that improve the environment. Kerwin has been active in conservation campaigns in her native Orange County, while D’Anna and Strong are interested in environmental anthropology.

“In terms of service learning, this is an activity that has engaged the students not only in understanding how to prepare a research project and conduct the research but also to engage themselves in the community and to have an effect on their immediate surroundings, which I think is pretty exciting,” says Pitchon.

“I’ve always found that [environmental issues] were extremely important... and I’m glad now that this country in particular, that going green is not something that is frowned upon anymore,” says Strong. “It’s come to the forefront and people are paying attention to what needs to be changed.

“One of the things that I’ve really wanted to do in life is something that makes a difference in the world we live in, because this is the only one we have. We’re not getting another one anytime soon.”

- Joanie Harmon

Photo above: Anthropology students and Ana Pitchon, assistant professor of anthropology (far right) presented their research on the cultural drivers of urban fishing at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association last month in San Francisco.

L-R: Christie D’Anna, Sonja Ulrich, Rose Hassani, Mallory Kerwin, Meghan Strong and Pitchon. Photo courtesy of Sonja Ulrich