Impact of sea pollution due to x-press pearl ship disaster on seafood consumption patterns of Sri Lankans

Abstract

Fish and shellfish are mainly considered seafood; are the best source of protein and have distinct flavours and aromas. Seafood consumption patterns of Sri Lankans mainly depend on socioeconomic conditions, health status, food habits and consumer attitudes. Marine pollution is one of the biggest threats to the seafood industry and its consumption pattern. This work was carried out to determine the factors that influence on seafood consumption patterns of Sri Lankan. The 700 respondents were collected from all the 25 districts of the country through the structured online questionnaire after three months of disaster. The highest preference was represented by the tuna fish species and the lowest was given to the bivalve and seaweeds at 43.2% and 0.41% respectively. The higher nutritional quality, and unique organoleptic characteristics were identified as the major reasons for consumption. Sea pollution was significantly influencing the seafood consumption pattern changes in Sri Lankans, and there was a significant relationship between consumer awareness of sea pollution and socioeconomic factors including age, gender, region, educational status and occupation (p<0.05, chi-square test). It was revealed as the X-press pearl ship disaster significantly (p<0.05, chi-square test) impacted the reducing the seafood consumption pattern of Sri Lankans and its varied with the socioeconomic factors. However, the consumption of freshwater food fish species has significantly increased. Also, sea pollution has negatively impacted brackish-water food species’ consumption and survival. It indicated the requirement and implementation of stronger legislation policies for preventing the occurrence of sea pollution, ensuring the survival of marine and brackish-water species and production of hazardous-free seafood products.