“Should we eat it?” Gulf experts—whether local or international, vegan or pescatarian, angler or "landlubber," degreed or practitioner—differ in their risk assessments about consuming seafood.  Not all expert types are alike, and with the public looking to experts generally, it is alarming when they disagree.  While experts are deeply immersed in one or more aspects that pertain to their consumption choices, they often struggle to describe a unified approach to assessing risk.  Their risk concerns are different and can be amplifed according to species, location, and contaminant.  Through a comparative approach, this paper integrates social science techniques (surveys, interviews, and ethnographic participant observation) to illuminate how different categories of experts weigh the dimensions of risk.  It demonstrates how contaminants of emerging concern (particularly, PFAS “forever chemicals”) rank according to established and lesser-known contaminants of concern and to what degree these risks are suspected to impact seafood in the Gulf, its bays, and coastline around the world.  

NOTE: Special thanks the nearly 400 GulfCon 2024 attendees who took time to complete the survey.