Ecotoxicology

For more than 20 years, DFO's Great Lakes Contaminants Surveillance Program has provided annual updates on contaminant trends in fish communities throughout the Great Lakes. Collections of top predator fish species (e.g., lake trout and walleye), major prey species (e.g., smelt, alewife, sculpin) and the invertebrate forage base are analysed for whole body contaminant burdens to determine trends in time and space throughout the lakes. The program can also use the contaminant burden data to identify emerging toxic chemical issues, and the toxicological significance and potential combined impacts of a range of toxic chemicals and their breakdown products. GLLFAS also maintains a Tissue Archive, which contains more than 15,000 samples of fish and invertebrates. Samples from the Archive are used to conduct retrospective chemical and biological analysis, which can indicate both changes to the dynamics of the Great Lakes ecosystem over time plus alterations to contaminant pathways and fate. It can also be used to identify the historical trends of recently identified toxic chemicals and track their impact over more than two decades.

Contact:

Mr. Mike Whittle - (905) 336-4565