Abstract
Since introduction into the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the 1970s, blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) populations have increased, impacting native species. One strategy suggested to limit their growing numbers is to expand the existing commercial fishery. However, the promotion of human consumption of this large, omnivorous fish may increase exposure to contaminants of concern (COC). However, there are few published data on contaminants in blue catfish. To evaluate this possibility, we measured COC (PCBs, PBDEs, OCs, Hg) in individual fillets and compared levels to established consumption advisory limits. James River (near Richmond, Virginia) and Upper Potomac River (downstream of Washington DC) fish exhibited higher burdens of most COC than those from the lower James and rural Rappahannock rivers. Fish sex and δ15N values (surrogate for trophic position) did not correlate with COC concentrations. Potomac River fish exhibited greatest δ15N, perhaps related to local wastewater inputs. Despite differences in human population densities among watersheds, fish mercury (Hg) levels were similar. Most fillets surpassed US EPA advisory limits for unrestricted consumption (> 16 meals/month) for Hg and PCBs. Hg and PCB advisories in the region typically restrict consumption to two 220 g meals/month. Hence, individuals who rely on fish for a large portion of their diet may be exposed to unacceptable Hg and PCB concentrations. COC levels typically increased with fish length; in particular, fish > 550 mm often exceeded unrestricted consumption limits for chlordanes and DDTs. PBDEs, pentachloroanisole, hexachlorobenzene, and mirex levels were generally below established advisories. However, because fish advisories are based on the expected consequences from single contaminants and a single or limited number of toxicological endpoints, consumers face greater risks due to cumulative effects from all coincident COCs, as well as additional exposure pathways, such as other food and air. The additional data on contaminant levels reported here will increase the accuracy of forecasted risks. However, it also illustrates the complexity in communicating the risks from multi-contaminant exposure.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) (1996) Toxicological profile for hexachlorobenzene (update). In: Public health service. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA, U.S.
Allen KO, Avault JW (1970) Effects of salinity on growth and survival of channel catfish. Proceedings of the Annual Conference Southeastern Association of Game and Fish Commissioners 23(1969):319–331
Balmer ME, Poiger T, Droz C, Romanin K, Bergqvist P, Müller MD, Buser H (2004) Occurrence of methyl triclosan, a transformation product of the bactericide triclosan, in fish from various lakes in Switzerland. Environ Sci Technol 38(2):390–395
Chen D, Zhang X, Mai B, Song J, Sun Q, Luo Y, Luo X, Zeng EY, Hale RC (2009) Polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides in various bird species from northern China. Environ Poll 157:2023–2029
Chen D, La Guardia MJ, Luellen DR, Harvey E, Mainor TM, Hale RC (2011) Do temporal and geographical patterns of HBCD and PBDE flame retardants in U.S. fish reflect evolving industrial usage? Environ Sci Technol. 45:8254–8261
Ehrenfeld JG (2010) Ecosystem consequences of biological invasions. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 41:59–80
Fry B (2006) Stable isotope ecology. Springer, New York, p 308
Garrett D, Rabeni CF (2011) Intra-annual movement and migration of flathead catfish and blue catfish in the Lower Missouri River and tributaries. Am Fish Soc Symp 77:495–509
Glodek GS 1980. Ictalurus furcatus (LeSueur) blue catfish. Page 439 in D. S. Lee, et al. Atlas of North American freshwater fishes. North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh
Graham K (1999) A review of the biology and management of blue catfish. Am Fish Soc Symp 24:37–49
Greenfield DW, Thomerson JE (1997) Fishes of the continental waters of Belize. University Press of Florida, Gainesville
Greenlee RS, Lim CN (2011) Searching for equilibrium: population parameters and variable recruitment in introduced blue catfish populations in four Virginia tidal river systems. In: Michaletz P, Travnichek V (eds) Conservation, ecology, and management of worldwide catfish populations and habitats. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD
Hale RC, La Guardia MJ, Harvey EP, Mainor TM, Duff WH, Gaylor MO (2001) Polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants in Virginia freshwater fishes (USA). Env Sci Technol 35:4585–4591
La Guardia MJ, Hale RC, Harvey E, Mainor TM, Ciparis S (2012) In-situ accumulation of HBCD, PBDEs and several alternative flame-retardants in the bivalve (Corbicula fluminea) and gastropod (Elimia proxima). Environ Sci Technol 46(11):5798–5805
Herbstman JB, Sjödin A, Kurzon M, Lederman SA, Jones RS, Rauh V, Needham LL, Tang D, Niedzwiecki M, Wang RY, Perera F (2010) Prenatal exposure to PBDEs and neurodevelopment. Environ Health Perspect 118(5):712–719
Higgins CB (2006) Invasion genetics of the blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) range expansion into large river ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond Virginia, USA
Klasing S and Brodberg R Fish Contaminant Goals and Advisory Tissue Levels for Contaminants in Sport Fish: PBDEs. http://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/fish/report/pbdes052311.pdf
Kutscher DJ, Sanz-Medel A, Bettmer J (2012) Metallomics investigations on potential binding partners of methylmercury in tuna fish muscle tissue using complementary mass spectrometric techniques. Metallomics 4(8):807–813
Leiker TJ, Rostad CE, Barnes CR, Pereira WE (1991) A reconnaissance study of halogenated organic compounds in catfish from the lower Mississippi River and its major tributaries. Chemosphere 23(7):817–829
Ma X, Bangxi X, Yindong W, Mingxue W (2003) Intentionally introduced and transferred fishes in China's inland waters. Asian Fisheries Science 16(3&4):279–290
MacAvoy S, Macko S, McIninch S, Garman G (2000) Marine nutrient contributions to freshwater apex predators. Oecologia 122:568–573
MacAvoy S, Garman G, Macko S (2009) Anadromous fish as marine nutrient vectors. Fish Bull 107:165–174
Morrissey CA, Boldt A, Mapstone A, Newton J, Ormerod SJ (2013) Stable isotopes as indicators of wastewater effects on the macroinvertebrates of urban rivers. Hydrobiologia 700:231–244
Moser FC 2002. Final report to the Chesapeake Bay Program, Invasive Species Working Group. EPA Chesapeake Bay Program and Maryland Sea Grant. Final Report to the Chesapeake Bay Program, Invasive Species Working Group. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: US EPA Chesapeake Bay Program and Maryland Sea Grant
Nuñez MA, Kuebbing S, Dimarco RD, Simberloff D (2012) Invasive species: to eat or not to eat, that is the question. Conserv Lett 5:334–341
Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress. 1993. Harmful non-indigenous species in the United States, OTA-F-565. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
Pasko S, Goldberg J (2014) Review of harvest incentives to control invasive species. Management of Biological Invasions 5:263–277
Perry WG (1969) Food habits of blue and channel catfish collected from a brackish-water habitat. The Progressive Fish-Culturist 31:47–50
Pimental D (2007). Environmental and economic costs of vertebrate species invasions into the United States. Managing Vertebrate Invasive Species. Paper 38. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nwrcinvasive/38)
Power M, Klein GM, Guiguer KRRA, Kwan MKH (2002) Mercury accumulation in the fish community of a sub-Arctic lake in relation to trophic position and carbon sources. J Appl Ecol 39(5):819–830
R Core Team (2012) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R-project.org/
Robinson CS, Tetreault GR, McMaster ME, Servos MR (2016) Impacts of a tertiary treated municipal wastewater effluent on the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures of two darter species (Etheostoma blennioides and E. caeruleum) in a small receiving environment. Ecol Indic 60:594–602
Rypel AL, Findlay RH, Mitchell JB, Bayne DR (2007) Variations in PCB concentrations between genders of six warmwater fish species in Lake Logan Martin, Alabama, USA. Chemosphere 68:1707–1715
Schloesser RW, Fabrizio MC, Latour RJ, Garman GC, Greenlee B, Groves M, and Gartland J (2011). Ecological role of blue catfish in Chesapeake Bay communities and implications for management. Pages 369–382 in conservation, ecology, and management of worldwide catfish populations and habitats. American Fisheries Society Symposium
Schmitt JD, Hallerman EM, Bunch A, Moran Z, Emmel JA, Orth D (2017) Predation and prey selectivity by nonnative catfish on migrating alosines in an Atlantic slope estuary. Marine and Coastal Fisheries 9(1):108–125
Timmons TJ (1999) Movement and exploitation of blue and channel catfish in Kentucky Lake. Catfish 2000: Proceedings of the international ictalurid symposium, American fisheries society. Pages 187-191
Tuckey TD, Fabrizio MC, Norris AJ, Groves M (2017) Low apparent survival and heterogeneous movement patterns of invasive blue catfish in a coastal river. Marine and Coastal Fisheries 9:564–572
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality web site: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs/WaterQualityMonitoring/FishTissueMonitoring/FishTissueResults.aspx
Virginia Department of Health Website: http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemiology/dee/PublicHealthToxicology/Advisories/
Vorkamp K, Riget F, Glasius M, Pécseli M, Lebeuf M, Muir D (2004) Chlorobenzenes, chlorinated pesticides, coplanar chlorobiphenyls and other organochlorine compounds in Greenland biota. Sci Total Environ 331:157–175
Watanabe KH, Desimone FW, Thiyagarajah A, Hartley WR, Hindrichs AE (2003) Fish tissue quality in the lower Mississippi River and health risks from fish consumption. Sci Total Environ 302(1–3):109–126
Wathen JB, Lazorchak JM, Olsen AR, Batt A (2015) A national statistical survey assessment of mercury concentrations in fillets of fish collected in the U.S. EPA national rivers and streams assessment of the continental USA. Chemosphere 122:52–61
Wayland M, Hobson KA (2001) Stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope ratios in riparian food webs on rivers receiving sewage and pulp-mill effluents. Can J Zool 79:5–15
Weintraub M, Birnbaum LS (2008) Catfish consumption as a contributor to elevated PCB levels in a non-Hispanic black subpopulation. Environ Res 107:412–417
Xu X, Newman MC, Fabrizio MC, Liang L (2013) An ecologically framed mercury survey of finfish of the lover Chesapeake Bay. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 65:510–520
Zipkin EF, Kraft CE, Cooch EG, Sullivan PJ (2009) When can efforts to control nuisance and invasive species backfire? Ecol Appl 19:1585–1595
Funding
Major aspects of the work were funded under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Award NA11NMF4570220. NOAA had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data. This is VIMS Contribution #3760.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 3646 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Luellen, D.R., LaGuardia, M.J., Tuckey, T.D. et al. Assessment of legacy and emerging contaminants in an introduced catfish and implications for the fishery. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 28355–28366 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2801-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2801-9