Great Lakes Funding

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FY1999 Great Lakes Projects

Monitoring Trends of Selected PCB Congeners and Pesticides in Great Lakes Predator Fish

Monitoring Trends of Selected PCB Congeners and Pesticides in Great Lakes Predator Fish Collected during 1994-1997 (DW14947842-01-2: $193,200)

Recipient: US Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Great Lakes Science Center (USGS/BRD/GLSC)

Project Period: 9/20/97 to 12/30/99

Project Officer: Sandra Hellman (312-353-5006)

This agreement will provide information on the concentration of toxic organic contaminants in lake trout and walleye that have been collected for the Open Lake Trend Monitoring element (Element 1) of the Great Lakes Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program. Composites of whole fish will be analyzed for PCB congeners, toxaphene homologs, pesticides, and other contaminants as listed in the 1996 USGS/EPA Cooperative Agreement and in the Request for Proposal (RFP) from EPA/GLNPO dated April 9, 1997. The project will complement trend analyses performed in previous years in the Great Lakes Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program. This agreement will also provide information on the concentration of toxic organic contaminants in coho salmon that have been collected for the Game Fish Fillet Monitoring element (Element 2) of the Great Lakes Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program. Skin-on fillets will be analyzed for the same contaminants identified above for Element 1 of the Fish Monitoring Program. This part of the project will provide information regarding potential human exposure to contaminants through consumption of popular sport species, as well as complement trend analyses performed for top predator species with shorter exposures than lake trout. In addition to information collected for the Great Lakes Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program, this agreement will provide for the analyses of a small number of fish samples from Mariupol, Ukraine. Whole fish will be analyzed for the same contaminants identified above for the Great Lakes Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program. The results will provide information for a joint U.S. EPA and University of Illinois at Chicago project concerning environmental pollutants and the health status of children living in Mariupol.