The Fish Mercury Project: A MidTerm Review

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The Fish Mercury ProjectA Mid-Term Review

• Presented at the
• 2006 FMP Annual Meeting

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• The Bay-Delta Watershed
• 40 of the land area of California
• Large and growing population
• Thousands of miles of rivers and streams
• Hundreds of reservoirs
• Abundant fish
• 10 of the California population engages in
  fishing activities
• 2.2 million hours per year fishing on the
  Sacramento River alone

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Contaminants of Concern in California Sport Fish

• Mercury
• PCBs
• DDT
• Dieldrin
• Selenium
• Dioxins
• PBDEs

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A large supply of mercury
Gold dots gold mines Red dots mercury mines
Map from Alpers and Hunerlach (2000) USGS Fact
Sheet FS-061-00
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Contaminant concentrations in some places and
some species are high enough to cause health
concerns for humans and wildlife

• Advisories are currently in place for some of the
  contaminated areas
• We dont have direct evidence of effects of
  contaminants from sport fish consumption in this
  watershed

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Advisories have been issued for some of the
contaminated areas
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The problem is not going away anytime soon
Mercury in Bay-Delta Striped Bass 1970-2000
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And could actually get worse

• Restoration will have tremendous benefits for
  wildlife
• Increased mercury in the food web a possible side
  effect

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Contaminant concentrations in some places and
some species are lower you can eat more of some
fish species and of fish from some places

• There are health benefits to consumption of fish
• Upcoming advisories will delineate some lower
  mercury areas
• Low species include bluegill, redear, salmon,
  trout

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CBDA Mercury Strategy

• Wiener, Gilmour, and Krabbenhoft 2003
• In a toxicological sense, the primary problem
  with mercury in aquatic ecosystems can be defined
  as biotic exposure to methylmercury.

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How can we minimize exposure?

• The Ultimate Solution for Humans and Wildlife
• Adaptive management cleanup actions and
  monitoring
• Will take decades
• Shorter Term Solution for Humans Only
• Identify high and low areas and species
• Develop consumption advice
• Communicate risk information to the public
• Can achieve significant exposure reduction in 10
  years

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The Fish Mercury Project Highlights

• The most thorough sampling ever of mercury in
  fish in the watershed
• An important demonstration of
• Integrated sport fish monitoring
• Biosentinel monitoring at the scale of the
  Bay-Delta watershed
• A first effort to incorporate environmental
  justice principles into a fish monitoring project

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Elements of the FMP
Biosentinel Monitoring
Risk Commun- ication
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Integrated Monitoring and Risk Communication
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Integrated Monitoring and Risk Communication
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Integrated Monitoring and Risk Communication
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Integrated Monitoring and Risk Communication
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Advantages of Integrated Monitoring and Risk
Communication

• Environmental justice
• Better monitoring
• Better advice
• More effective risk communication
• More effective risk reduction

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Organization of the FMP
Funding Agency CBDA
Principal Investigator SFEI
Steering Committee
Peer Review Panel
Local Stakeholder Advisory Group
Sport Fish Monitoring SFEI and MLML
Biosentinel Monitoring UC Davis
Advisory Development OEHHA
Risk Communication DHS/EHIB
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Project Goals

• Protect human health by characterizing fish
  contamination in the watershed, developing safe
  consumption guidelines, and reducing exposure to
  contaminants in fish in the Bay-Delta watershed
  through risk communication based on environmental
  justice principles
• Through food web monitoring, determine how
  habitat restoration and mercury clean-up actions
  affect methylmercury exposure in the watershed

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Project Goals

• Establish an organizational and technical
  foundation for cost-effective and scientifically
  defensible monitoring of mercury and other
  pollutants in the watershed that meets the
  identified needs of end users
• Coordinate with the major ongoing science,
  management, and risk communication efforts to
  achieve efficiencies of scale and scope

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Progress in Meeting Project Goals
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Progress in Meeting Project Goals
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What Comes After the FMP?

• Need for
• Continued food web monitoring of methylmercury
  and other pollutants
• Filling organics information gaps
• Broader spatial coverage
• Fuller participation of CBOs (EJ)
• Quantifiable exposure reduction
• Proposals developed this year by SFEI and others
• State Boards Consolidated Grant Solicitation
• Recommendations to the State Boards Surface
  Water Ambient Monitoring Program

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Another FMP Product Coming Soon

• FMP Annual Report
• A nontechnical report summarizing results and
  progress to date
• Similar to RMP Pulse of the Estuary
• Will be drafted and distributed for comments
  after the technical reports are finalized (late
  summer)
• Steering Committee meeting in July to plan

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Acknowledgments

• Jennifer Hunt, SFEI
• Linda Russio, SFEI
• Thank you!!!

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General Goals for the Meeting

• Obtain review of 2005 work and products from the
  Peer Review Panel and the Steering Committee
• Obtain input on and approval of sampling plans
  for 2006 from the Peer Review Panel and the
  Steering Committee

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For more information
jay_at_sfei.org
www.sfei.org
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