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Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) Environmental and Fisheries Sciences EFS - Environmental Chemistry

Information

Project
Salish Sea Contaminants
Title
Salish Sea Contaminants and the Toxics-focused Biological Observing System
Description
This project assesses contaminant exposure and adverse effects on key Salish Sea indicator species such as salmon, herring, English sole and bivalves and is an essential component of population health assessments in the Georgia Basin. Emphasis is on endocrine active, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), PAH metabolites and persistent organic compounds that penetrate marine food webs and biomagnify in top predators. This project is a collaboration between NWFSC and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) who work together on the collection and chemical analyses. NWFSC staff help collect samples, design new analysis methodologies, conduct all chemical analyses and provide scientific interpretation of results on a diverse range of contaminants and health indicators. This provides essential information about spatial and temporal contaminant trends and is critical for making informed decisions about Puget Sound/Georgia Basin fishery resources and habitats and the effectiveness of past management decisions. In FY23, we will continue with legacy chemical analysis to maintain continuity with ongoing long-term, trend analysis of contaminant levels while also working to develop and improve analytical methodology used to quantify both legacy and emerging contaminants such as 6PPD, 6PPD-Q and PFAS compounds. The NWFSC focus is to analyze tissue/fluid samples of marine and anadromous species and ensure all results meet required quality assurance guidelines.

Data Sets

no data found

Research Themes

Habitats to support sustainable fisheries and recovered populations
Healthy oceans, coastal waters, and riverine habitats provide the foundation for aquatic resources used by a diversity of species and society. Protecting marine, estuarine and freshwater ecosystems that support these species relies on science to link habitat condition/processes and the biological effects of restoration actions. The NWFSC provides the habitat science behind many management actions taken by NOAA Fisheries and other natural resource agencies to protect and recover aquatic ecosystems and living marine resources. The NWFSC also maintains a longstanding focus on toxic chemical contaminants, as a foundation for regional and national research on pollution threats to fisheries and protected resources.

Research Foci

Assess the impacts of toxic chemicals and other pollutants across biological scales, and identify pollution reduction strategies that improve habitat quality
The NWFSC has been at the forefront of marine pollution research for more than four decades, providing science support for several major events, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Hurricane Katrina, and the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Land-based sources of pollution are an increasingly important threat to NOAA trust resources, and NWFSC science is evolving to fill priority information gaps at the regional and national scales. This includes targeted research on major classes of contaminants (e.g., crude oil, pesticides, metals, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals of emerging concern); surveillance monitoring to assess the exposure, health and status of species in polluted habitats; exposure; monitoring to assess the success of habitat restoration efforts; and research to evaluate the effectiveness of new green infrastructure technologies. Ongoing efforts span all biological scales, from molecular mechanisms of toxicity to population and community-level responses.

Keywords

Chinook salmon
species of interest
DDTs
contaminant of concern at the site
Pacific herring
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Products

Contaminants, lipids, stable isotopes in Puget Sound biota
Detail-level metadata
Contaminants, lipids, stable isotopes in Puget Sound biota
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Taxa

Species Clupea pallasii
Pacific herring
Species Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
Chinook salmon, king salmon, spring salmon
Species Parophrys vetulus
English sole

People

Denis Da Silva
Staff
Denis Da Silva
Staff
Irvin Schultz
Program Manager
Irvin Schultz
Program Manager
James Meador
Staff
James Meador
Staff
Jennie Bolton
Staff
Jennie Bolton
Staff
Jonelle Gates
Staff
Jonelle Gates
Staff
Keri Baugh
Staff
Keri Baugh
Staff
Li-Jung Kuo
Staff
Li-Jung Kuo
Staff
Paul Chittaro
Staff