Fish Effects Fiveyear Plan

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Fish EffectsFive-year Plan
Chinook Salmon
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Outline

• Management and Regulatory Context
• RMP objectives
• Specific questions for the next five years
• Highlights of SF Bay/Delta fish effects work
• Priorities

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Management Context
Herring

• SF Bay is critical habitat for
• Estuarine fish (e.g., Delta smelt)
• Marine fish (e.g., herring anchovies)
• Anadromous fish (e.g., Chinook salmon, steelhead,
  sturgeon)
• 9 endangered species reside in Bay

Delta Smelt
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Management Context

• Many SF Bay fish are in decline

Shiner surfperch
Source CDFG and Delta Smelt Action Plan (2005)
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ManagementContext
Delta Smelt near screen
Invasive asian clam

• Reasons for decline are unclear
• Water diversions
• Invasive species
• Loss of habitat
• Contaminants

Invasive cyclopoid copepod
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Regulatory Context

• Few fish effect standards/guidelines exist
• NOAA 1 ppm PAH threshold for sediments

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Regulatory Context

• Few fish effect standards exist
• Basin Plan narrative objective
• All waters shall be maintained free of toxic
  substances in concentrations that are lethal to
  or that produce other detrimental responses in
  aquatic organisms. Detrimental responses include,
  but are not limited to, decreased growth rate and
  decreased reproductive success of resident or
  indicator species.

Delta smelt
Chinook salmon in Santa Clara Valley watershed
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RMP Objectives and Management Questions

• 4.0 Characterize ecological and human health
  risks due to pollution of the Estuary ecosystem
• 4.1 Which chemicals pose ecological and human
  health risks and should be monitored?
• 4.2 What ecological and human health risks exist
  due to Bay pollution?
• 4.3 Are management actions effective in reducing
  ecological and human health risks due to Bay
  pollution
• 4.4 What are the most cost-effective indicators
  of ecological and human health risks to support
  decision-making

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Specific Questions for the Next 5 Years
Selenium splittail Source Dr. Teh UC-Davis

• Are pollutants, individually or in combination,
  reducing viability of fish populations?

Source Dr. David Ostrach of UC-Davis
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Specific Questions
English sole

• Are pollutants, individually or in combination
  reducing viability of fish populations?
• What are appropriate thresholds for PAHs in
  sediments to protect fish?

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Specific Questions
English sole

• Are pollutants, individually or in combination
  reducing viability of fish populations?
• What are appropriate thresholds for contaminants
  in sediments?
• What are cost-effective indicators for monitoring
  fish effects?

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Previous Fish Effects Work

• Relatively few marine fish effects studies
• At PAH and PCB contaminated sites in Bay (Spies
  and Rice 1988), Starry flounder had
• Higher incidence of AHH
• Poorer egg survival, decreased fertilization, and
  decreased embryo success

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Previous Fish Effects Work

• Field study of SF bay fish and reference site
• Increase in liver lesions in SF Bay fish
  correlated to higher PCB, PAH, and pesticide
  concentration

Source Stehr et al. 1997 Ecotoxicology 6, 35-65
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RMP Fish Effects Work

• RMP-funded work
• Myers et al. 2002
• Significant increase in liver lesions in white
  croaker difficult to correlate to contaminants
  to effects
• Spies et al. 2006
• Study of effect of contaminants on growth,
  fitness and reproduction of shiner surfperch.
• Skewed sex ratio few histopathological effects
  EROD somewhat ambiguous
• Kelley et al. on-going
• Evaluation of hormones/contaminants in shiner
  surfperch/staghorn sculpin

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Endocrine Disruption in SF Fish
Shiner surfperch
Pacific staghorn sculpin
Source K. Kelley CSU-LB
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Priorities for Fish Effects

• Link current effects work to population-level
  evaluations
• Identify fish effects
• Identify suitable biomarkers of effects
• Apply models to translate individual effects to
  population-level effects

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Priorities for Fish Effects

• High priority pollutants
• PAHs
• PCBs
• Endocrine disruptors
• Others?
• Lower priority pollutants
• Legacy pesticides
• Trace metals
• Others?

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Priorities for Fish Effects

• Evaluate thresholds for decision-making in the
  Bay
• PAH threshold
• Implement use of fish effect indicators in ST
  triennial sportfish monitoring
• Liver lesions
• Gonad histopathology
• Incidence of parasites
• Others?

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