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| Title | Quality Assurance Project Plan: Measuring Mercury Trends in Freshwater Fish in Washington State | |
| Month-Year Published | April 2006 | |
| Online Availability |
628 kilobytes, requires version 4.0 or later of Adobe Acrobat Reader Software get Acrobat Reader
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| Short Description |
This is the quality assurance project plan for Measuring Mercury Trends in Freshwater Fish in Washington State. (Also see abstract below) | |
| Publication Number | 06-03-103 | |
| Author(s) | Seiders, K. | |
| Print Availability | ||
| Number of pages | 42 pp. | |
| Keywords | bioaccumulative, chemical, chemical action plan, fish, health, legislature, mercury, order, quality, quality assurance, quality assurance project plan, reduction, toxic, toxin, trend, water | |
| Related Publications | Title | Relationship |
| Measuring Mercury Trends in Freshwater Fish in Washington State: 2005 Sampling Results | similar topic | |
| Measuring Mercury Trends in Freshwater Fish in Washington State: 2006 Sampling Results | supporting publication | |
| Measuring Mercury Trends in Freshwater Fish in Washington State: 2007 Sampling Results | part of a series | |
| Measuring Mercury Trends in Freshwater Fish in Washington State, 2008 Sampling Results | part of a series | |
| Abstract | Long Description |
Concern about mercury in our environment has increased due to the persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic nature of this substance. Mercury was chosen as the first pollutant to be addressed in the state′s Persistent and Bioaccumulative Toxins Reduction Strategy. A Mercury Chemical Action Plan was developed in 2003 by the Departments of Ecology and Health with assistance from an advisory committee representing business, health, environmental, and local government organizations. The Mercury Chemical Action Plan identified the need for improved understanding of mercury′s behavior in the environment in order to guide management of this environmental toxicant. The 2005 Legislature provided funds to begin long-term monitoring of mercury in the freshwater environments of Washington. This document is the initial plan for long-term monitoring of mercury in fish tissue. The primary goal of this project is to monitor mercury levels in edible tissue from freshwater fish at six sites per year on a five-year frequency (30 sites total) in order to characterize temporal trends in fish tissue mercury levels. Target fish species for trend monitoring are bass and walleye. Ancillary data on the fish and sites will be collected to help understand patterns, dynamics, and changes in fish tissue mercury levels over space and time. Such data include: fish length; weight; sex; age; and physical and chemical characteristics of sites such as morphometry, water chemistry, and surficial sediment mercury levels. A secondary goal of this project is to provide information about mercury levels in fish species other than bass and walleye in order to help the Department of Health craft more informative recommendations for fish consumption advisories. For two other species per site, three composite samples of 3-5 fish per composite sample will be collected and analyzed for mercury. Link to EIM data for User Study ID HgFish05 |
This page last updated September 25, 2009
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