Surviving the Spill: Stakeholder Perceptions of the Commercial Seafood Supply Chain in Alabama and Mississippi After the Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Abstract

Stakeholders in the commercial seafood industry in Alabama and Mississippi have experienced a series of environmental and man-made shocks in the last decade. Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, the recession of 2008, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have all left their marks on the United States’ Gulf Region. Through interviews with actors in the commercial seafood supply chain in Alabama and Mississippi’s coastline counties, this thesis addresses the opinions and beliefs held by those actors on the impacts of shocks on their industry, the role of the media in discussions of seafood safety, and their industry’s future. This thesis finds that the commercial seafood industry is experiencing a prolonged decline that has been hastened by the shocks to the region as well as the media coverage of those shocks.