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Assessing Nation-wide Distributions of Contaminant Levels in Selected Finfish and Shellfish from the Estuaries of the United States
Citation:
Summers, J K., J E. Harvey, AND L C. Harwell. Assessing Nation-wide Distributions of Contaminant Levels in Selected Finfish and Shellfish from the Estuaries of the United States. 2006 ICES Annual Science Conference, Maastricht, NETHERLANDS, September 19 - 23, 2006. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, KS, G(11):1-32, (2006).
Impact/Purpose:
Data for this study was collected by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), created in 1988 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate environmental problems impacting ecological resources
Description:
The toxicity of mercury is well documented and has led to laws and regulations governing its use and disposal; however mercury contamination of coastal and estuarine biota continues to be of public concern. The U.S. EPA Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program provided data collected using probability-based surveys between 1991 and 1997 from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. These data documented mercury concentrations from 634 fish and shellfish composite samples collected from these coastal areas. The extent of elevated tissue mercury concentrations for each collected species and across species groups and all species was estimated in two ways: 1) as a (simple) proportion of sites displaying elevated tissue Hg concentrations, which allows comparisons with most existing data sets; and 2) the prevalence of elevated concentrations in fish and shellfish was calculated using a cumulative distribution function as the weighted average of the prevalence for a tissue Hg concentration at each station. Mercury concentration data were compared to the EPA screening value for subsistence fishers (0.049ppm) and the guidance range for recreational fishers consuming four 8-ounce meals per month (0.12 - 0.23 ppm). Concentrations of mercury by biogeographical province, by fish and shellfish species, and by percentage exceeding EPA criteria values are presented. Of 634 composite samples representing 4,122 fish and shellfish, Hg concentrations in fish and shellfish tissues ranged from 0.004-1.63 ug/g. Fifty-four percent of the samples and 51% of the estuarine area of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts exceeded the EPA subsistence fishers= criterion; 23% of the samples and 21% of the area exceeded the lower end of the guidance range for recreational fishers consuming four 8-ounce meals per month; and, 16% of the samples and 13% of the area exceeded the high end of that guidance range.