Restrictions on Fish and Wildlife Consumption. Fish-tissue monitoring can determine whether contaminant concentrations exceed state-based human consumption advisories for specific fish species. Each Great Lakes state sets guidelines and advisories for consumption of sport- and subsistence-caught fish. The states may base recommendations on existing U.S. EPA or FDA guidance or develop their own, state-specific recommendations. Fish caught for commercial sale, however, must comply with U.S. FDA contaminant-concentration standards. In 1993, the Great Lakes Sport Fish Advisory Task Force2
Restrictions on Fish and Wildlife Consumption. Fish-tissue monitoring can determine whether concentrations of contaminants exceed state-based advisories for human consumption. Each Great Lakes state sets guidelines and advisories for consumption of sport- and subsistence-caught fish. The states may base recommendations on existing EPA or FDA guidance or develop state-specific recommendations. Fish caught for commercial sale must comply with U.S. FDA contaminant-concentrations standards. The Great Lakes Sport Fish Advisory Task Force has attempted to create a Great Lakes area-wide standard for fish contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (1993) and mercury (2005). For PCBs, the Task Force developed a health protection value (HPV) of 0.05 µg/kg/day for PCB residue ingested from fish tissue, with associated recommendations ranging from unrestricted consumption (i.e., fish containing fewer than 0.05 ppm PCB) to “do not eat” (fish containing more than 1.89 ppm PCB). Every Great Lakes state except New York uses these recommendations for establishing PCB-related fish consumption advisories. The recommendations for mercury established an average dietary ingestion level below 0.1 µg/kg/day for mercury (equating to 7 µg/day for a 70 kg person). This recommendation has been adopted by all the Great Lakes states except New York and Pennsylvania.
