PT12 Metals and Bioaccumulation
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday
(PT151) The Use of Small Bodied Forage Fish in Caged Exposures for Metal Mining Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM).
Doebel, C1, Baron, C2, Wautier, K2, Evans, R2, Palace, V2, 1 Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada2 Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
ABSTRACT- Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM) for Canadian Metal Mines is a program that has been under development since 1993. It has been designed to examine the potential environmental effects of metal mining discharges on fish, fish habitat, and the usability of fisheries resources. Questions surrounding the metal mining EEM program have arisen regarding appropriate methods for conducting fish population surveys, the means through which effects on fish will be monitored. In situations where there are confounding influences, it has been difficult to design survey methods void of bias, representative of existing fish populations, and sensitive enough to determine whether or not effects are occurring. Furthermore, the currently accepted approaches to fish surveys in the EEM program are limited through the fact that fish residency and hence exposure profiles cannot be aptly described. At present, the caged fish approach is not an accepted method in the EEM program for metal mines. In an effort to provide an alternative fish survey method wherein the above listed difficulties are minimized, a series of caging experiments were conducted in northwestern Ontario, Canada. These studies involved caging small-bodied juvenile fish at 2 sites (1 reference, 1 exposure) in an area impacted by gold mining activities for 2 to 4 weeks. Biological parameters (e.g. growth) and levels of accumulated arsenic species were evaluated. The objective of this research was to refine small-bodied caged fish techniques to allow the incorporation of this method into the Canadian metal mining EEM program.
Key words: effects monitoring, caged fish, metal mining, arsenic