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Results of analysis of mercury concentrations in freshwater fish collected from Rhode Island by DEM Division of Fish and Wildlife in 2018 and 2019.
Citation:
Lake, Jim AND J. Serbst. Results of analysis of mercury concentrations in freshwater fish collected from Rhode Island by DEM Division of Fish and Wildlife in 2018 and 2019. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
Mercury is a contaminant of significant concern in New England due to its widespread distribution and tendency to accumulate in organisms in aquatic food webs, including freshwater fish. This dataset and report represents freshwater fish mercury data for potential use as field validation of a model which predicts mercury concentrations in fish from GIS based information. These data may be useful to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and Rhode Island Department of Health in evaluating the potential need for fish consumption advisories.
Description:
In New England mercury is a contaminant of significant concern due to its widespread distribution and propensity to accumulate in organisms in aquatic food webs. The total mercury concentration data in this report were generated for use in assessments of the distribution of this contaminant in the watersheds of Rhode Island. Overall, the goal of this research effort is to develop simple field based methods that can be applied across large landscape areas and can provide rapid assessment of contaminant concentrations and nutrient stress at aquatic sites. The results from these methods will be used to field validate predictive models based on GIS landscape characteristics, aquatic flow regimes and traditional water chemistry variables. Specific uses of the data in this report in pursuit of path forward goals are for case study assessments of watersheds of Rhode Island and Narragansett Bay under Safe and Sustainable Water Resources (SSWR) Watershed Indicators and Classification, Task 1.1B, and the Narragansett Bay and Watershed Sustainability-Demonstration Project, SSWR 6.1. It is also anticipated that the data will be of use in field validation of the MERGANSER model, which predicts mercury concentrations in fish from GIS based data. An additional use of these data is to provide information to Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) and Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH). They could use these data in statewide listing and classification of aquatic sites and for issuance of fish consumption advisories.