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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 8
April 2006
Report on pollution and fisheries available from New England council
Following are a few excerpts from the “Coastal Pollution and New England Fisheries” report prepared for the New England Fishery Management Council by council staffer Chad Demarest and Yale University graduate student Christopher Meaney.
Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of the full report can get it off the council’s web site at <http://nefmc.org/ecosystems/index.html>. Scroll down to “Additional Materials” and click on the link called “Coastal Pollution and New England Fisheries.” Or call the council directly at (978) 465-0492 to order one.
Here are a few highlights.
Pollution, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, is “the presence in the environment, or the introduction into it, of products of human activity which have harmful or objectionable effects.”
“The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that Massachusetts Bay, Long Island Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean have the highest level of contaminated sediments.”
Seven estuaries exhibit high eutrophic conditions, meaning they have an excessive nutrient-induced increase in the production of organic matter: St. Croix River/Cobscook Bay, ME; Englishman Bay, ME; Narraguagus Bay, ME; Sheepscot Bay, ME; Casco Bay, ME; Boston Harbor; and Long Island Sound.
“Toxic contamination refers to inputs of substances such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and volatile compounds.” These can lead to larval mortality, reproduction and development impairments, disease, lesions, and parasites.
“Nutrient over-enrichment is the addition of high concentrations of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus to the marine coastal environment. … Nutrient over-enrichment may result in effects similar to toxic contaminants such as increased mortality in addition to changes in phytoplankton communities and other ecological factors that may reduce growth and trigger community shifts.”
“Fish obtain contaminants either directly from water, through ingestion of contaminants present in or on prey or from contact with or ingestion of bottom sediments.”
“Toxic contaminant pollution has been determined to impair reproduction in marine fish.”
“A study … examined relationships between hepatic lesions and chemical contaminant concentrations in sediments, stomach contents, and tissues of winter flounder collected from 22 Northeast coastal sites. Aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated pesticides such as DDT and chlordanes were the most important risk factors for hepatic disease in winter flounder; however, they were unable to single out which one had the greatest impact because all were found together.”
“Winter Stress Syndrome (WSS) is a condition of severe lipid depletion in fish brought on by external stressors; some scientists believe this to be an important factor to consider in fish health. Contaminant stress from heavy metals, pesticides, and synthetic organic compounds, in addition to biological stresses like parasites, have the potential to cause or exacerbate WSS in fish populations throughout temperate regions of the world.”
“A 2000 National Research Council report … concluded that nutrient over-enrichment generally degrades the marine food web that supports commercially valuable fish.”
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