Environmental Issues In Alaska

traditions (Mathis et al., 2014). Mathis et al., concluded that Alaska fisheries are extremely vulnerable to the effects from OA in the region’s four seas that ring Alaska--the Chukchi, Beaufort, Bering, and Gulf of Alaska (See Appendix A, Image 1) (Mathis et al., 2014). Alaska’s fishing industry currently supports more than 100,000 jobs and generates over $5.8 billion in annual revenues while contributing to the balance of trade in the U.S. (Mathis, et al., 2014). Southeast Alaska was identified by Mathis as the primary hub for commercial fisheries in which coastal communities derive the lion’s share of their local economic revenues from fishing industry activities (Mathis et al., 2014). Southwestern Alaska is populated primarily with subsistence …show more content…
The objective of this paper is to propose an outline for conducting an integrated environmental health impact assessment concerning ocean acidification on Alaska fisheries and coastal communities based on Briggs multifaceted framework and then review approaches for reducing the environmental risk as described in scholarly literature. The risk assessment framework will consist of: Issue-framing, to define the problem, purpose, scope and limits of the assessment strategy agreed upon; Design, during which the methodological approach is specified; Execution, in which the relevant data are collected and analyzed; and Appraisal, in which the results of the assessment are reviewed (Briggs, …show more content…
This stage is crucial for defining the problem of OA in the context of environmental health and will help to focus the purpose and determine the scope of this assessment (Briggs, 2014). In order to develop a more comprehensive assessment of the risks of OA on Alaska fisheries and coastal communities, I will use an evidence-based conceptual framework approach developed by Dr. Julia Ekstrom, a member of the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center team who adapted the SREX framework to explore the three components of disaster risk: human exposure impact (economic and nutritional), hazard (ocean acidification), and vulnerability (sensitivity, and adaptive capacity), as they relate specifically to ocean acidification. (See Appendix B, Figure 2) Next, constructing a causal chain diagram in this phase (See Appendix C, Figure 3) will help to design the primary research question which is: How could Alaska fisheries and coastal communities be impacted by ocean acidification with respect to the three risk components ‘hazard’, ‘exposure’ and