By: Fiona Price, DUSRC Community Engagement Core Intern, Spring/Summer 2025
CEC Community Advisory Board member, and member of the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, Veronica Carter, discusses the comic book created for the campaign.
“Stop, Check, Enjoy” materials (comic book, magnet, brochure, wall calendar) designed by the CEC and Cape Fear partners to educate people about fish consumption advisories due to heavy metals in the Lower Cape Fear River Basin.
Regardless of health warnings and advisories, people will continue to eat the fish they catch, even if it is contaminated. How do we protect people from pollutants in fish while respecting the cultural and economic motivations behind subsistence fish consumption? This is a question that groups in the Lower Cape Fear River Basin are grappling with.
In 2017, the CEC launched a “Stop, Check, Enjoy!” campaign with collaborators in the Lower Cape Fear River Basin. The goal of the social marketing campaign was to educate people on fish consumption advisories regarding heavy metals and prevent people from eating fish known to have higher rates of mercury, arsenic, and chromium-6. Unfortunately, however, this is no longer applicable; fish in the basin have been shown to have high levels of PFAS, a group of man-made, forever chemicals. While different fish preparation techniques (such as filleting and grilling) helped limit human exposure to heavy metals in fish, the same is not true of PFAS, which bind to the protein of the fish. Now there is only stopping and checking; there is no more “enjoying!”
Despite the risks, people in the area continue to eat wild-caught fish. Wild caught fish is important economically, as it provides a good source of dietary protein. Furthermore, subsistence fishing is deeply tied to the expressed cultural identity of native North Carolinians and immigrant communities.
On May 23rd, representatives of various advocacy, education, and community groups met to brainstorm alternatives to the “Stop, Check, Enjoy!” campaign, discuss the target audiences, and review some of the new science behind PFAS in fish. Participants emphasized that people everywhere are facing uncertainty in their lives. We are constantly being told that some new toxin or pollutant will harm us. In an age where everything seems dangerous, how can we make people care about specific health risks? We must acknowledge that our role is not to convince people to give up their way of life, but rather to educate them on the health risks – especially for pregnant women and young children – if they continue subsistence fishing. It’s certainly a daunting task, but these representatives were full of hope and energy about their potential for impact.
This is just the start. There is much more work to be done, and much more we have yet to learn about PFAS. It’s a complex issue, made more challenging by the lack of subsistence fisher representation and centralization. Yet participants walked away from the meeting energized, inspired, and impassioned to continue this work. It’s meetings like this which remind us of the power of community organizing and bottom-up education. For newcomers to the field like myself, this meeting was an excellent model of all we can achieve if we put our minds together and consider all perspectives. Thank you to all participants for your commitment to this goal!
Partners pictured: DUSRC Community Engagement Core (Liz Shapiro-Garza, Megan Hoert Hughes, Chiara Klein); North Carolina Coastal Federation (Kerri Allen, Veronica Carter (Board of Directors); Christina James, Bonnie Mitchell); NCSU Center for Human Health and the Environment (CHHE) (Lacey Brown); Cape Fear River Watch (Kemp Burdette)