T10 PM Advances in Bioaccumulation Assessment
Tuesday, 15 November 2005: 1:50 PM - 5:30 PM in 341-342

(HEL-1117-728750) Assessing organic contaminants in fish: evaluating non-lethal sampling techniques and mobile passive sampling devices.

Heltsley, R¹, Cope, W¹, Shea, D¹, Bringolf, R¹, Kwak, T², Malindzak, E¹, ¹ North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA² USGS, North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Raleigh, NC, USA

ABSTRACT- As concerns mount over the human health risks associated with consumption of fish contaminated with bioaccumulative persistent organic pollutants, there exists a need to better evaluate fish body burdens without lethally sampling many of the important commercial and sport species of interest. The aim of this study was to investigate two novel methods for estimating organic contaminants in fish that are a concern for both fish and human health. The removal of fish adipose fins, commonly done in mark-recapture studies with salmonid species, was evaluated as a non-lethal sampling technique to estimate concentrations of selected polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris, relative to those found in muscle fillets of the same fish. We also assessed the efficacy of using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a mobile passive sampling device (PSD) attached directly to wild flathead catfish for assessing location-specific exposure of the fish to waterborne contaminants. The results of this study have demonstrated for the first time that organic contaminant concentrations in adipose fin were highly correlated (r² = 0.87) with muscle fillet concentrations, indicating that the adipose fin of certain fishes may be used to estimate tissue concentrations without the need for lethal sampling. Moreover, mobile PSDs attached directly to fish and used here for the first time, estimated sub ppb concentrations of waterborne PCBs and OCPs without any apparent harm to the fish, indicating that there are no practical or physical barriers to the use of mobile passive samplers attached to aquatic organisms.

Key words: Non-lethal sampling, Mobile passive sampling devices, Persistent organic pollutants