Building and Nurturing a Citizen Science Network with fishermen and fishing communities post DWH Oil Disaster

Presentation will focus on roles of community subsistence / commercial fishermen, community hub coordinators and GC-HARMS project community outreach and dissemination core personnel in systematic marine life sampling and subsequent communication of seafood consumption risk information to Gulf coast communities impacted by the DWH spill.  Presentation will explore the dynamics of creating and maintaining a multi-directional communication network and grounding the project directly in each affected community.   Methods of integrating the needs and sensitivities of Environmental Justice communities with pre-existing burdens of cumulative risk into outreach and dissemination plans will be discussed in depth with particular emphasis on the novel role of training working commercial / subsistence fishermen as citizen scientists and peer-to-peer environmental health educators.  GC-HARMS spans a four state area (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas), includes the United Houma nation, the Mississippi Coalition of Vietnamese-American Fisher Folk & Families, and the Center for Environmental & Economic Justice as clinical study hubs, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), as a regional hub delivering sampling training and project information, and the Alabama Fisheries Cooperative, as a seafood sampling hub for Mobile Bay, and Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO) as an information hub in Terrebonne, Lafourche and Jefferson Parishes (S Louisiana).  Collaborating universities include: University of Texas Medical Branch as lead (Galveston TX), Texas A&M University (Marine Sciences Center, Galveston TX), University of Pennsylvania (NIEHS P30 Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology) and Louisiana State University.