The trouble with salmon: relating pollutant exposure to toxic effect in species with transformational life histories and lengthy migrations
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| Authors: | Ross, PS; Kennedy, CJ; Shelley, LK; Tierney, KB; Patterson, DA; Fairchild, WL; Macdonald, RW |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Journal: | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 70: 1252-1264 Article Link (DOI) |
| Title: | The trouble with salmon: relating pollutant exposure to toxic effect in species with transformational life histories and lengthy migrations |
| Abstract: | The control of point-source contaminants and regulations designed for specific waste discharges have reduced incidents of fish kills. These actions, however, do not protect fish like salmon, which encounter many different contaminants during extensive migrations. Attempts to document pollutant-associated toxicity is challenging in migratory salmon, although a few laboratory and field studies have produced a convincing body of evidence that lifelong contaminant exposure can contribute to the demise of fish. The case of the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in British Columbia, Canada, brought into sharp relief the difficulty of assigning a specific cause (e. g., climate, disease, or contaminants) to a diffuse problem (i.e., low fish returns). Determining the effects that pollutants have on wild salmon requires study designs that consider life history, habitat, and the real world of complex contaminant exposures. In the absence of evidence from such study designs, the future survival of salmon may hinge on the application by managers of the precautionary approach to stressors that are within immediate jurisdictional control, such as toxic chemicals. |
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