Assessment of Existing and Potential Anthropogenic Effects of Contaminants
to Stellwagen Bank Fauna
A description
of the available data on water, sediment and biota contaminant levels
is presented elsewhere in this volume. The aim of this section is to
assess whether these current levels of contaminants are having adverse
effects on the organisms inhabiting the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary. It
is not enough to simply know that a contaminant, even a totally synthetic
toxicant, is present in the environment or has been taken up by organisms.
The mere presence of a contaminant does not necessarily imply that an
adverse effect will occur. A determination must be made as to whether
the contaminant is present at a high enough concentration to cause harm.
A determination is also necessary regarding bioavailability of the contaminant
as well as its potential for adverse effects on animal populations.
This requires much more information than that which is supplied solely
by analytical chemistry.
In the
present section, a variety of techniques will be applied to the analytical
data which have been gathered on chemical contaminants from Stellwagen
Bank water, sediments and biota. The primary emphasis will be on the
assessment of organism health, although human health concerns, based
on consumption of organisms harvested from the Bank region, will also
be addressed.
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