The Fishing and Hunting integrated science team focuses on contaminant and pathogen exposures in the environment that could impact the presence and vitality of fish and wildlife populations that drive commercial, recreational and subsistence activities such as hunting and fishing. If actual risks are identified this project will inform how to economically and effectively minimize risk by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants and pathogens. Emphasis will be placed on addressing these issues on public and Department of the Interior managed landscapes.
Fish and wildlife that are healthy, abundant, and safe to eat drive many economically valuable commercial, recreational, and subsistence activities, and are a treasured part of the American landscape.
Contaminant and pathogen exposures are known to influence these natural resources. Team scientists together with other federal, state, and university collaborators, conduct scientific research that provides information to economically and effectively minimize risk to fish and wildlife by understanding the environmental transport, fate, exposure pathways, and potential effects of contaminants and pathogens. Because fish and wildlife can move over sometimes large distances, the Team studies exposure to contaminants and pathogens across landscapes, particularly on public lands and those managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Current Science Questions and Activities
![Micrograph of testes from male smallmouth bass](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/male_smallmouth_bass_oocytes_blazer.jpg?itok=X4Gn_I8I)
- Are sport fish in the Northeast U.S. exposed to chemical contaminants that are adversely affecting their health, reproduction and populations?
- How important are contaminants in relation to other risk factors (climatic, water quality, parasite, pathogen) influencing adverse health effects in Northeast United States sport fish?
- What is the susceptibility of black bass to formation of intersex from exposure to endocrine disrupting contaminants?
- Do exposures to endocrine disrupting contaminants during early development cause adverse outcomes later in life in wild fish.
- Are sublethal contaminant exposures causing waterfowl mortalities due to secondary factors such as starvation?
- What are the land use, habitat, and ecological factors that control pesticide and mercury exposures in sportfish from the Columbia River Basin?
- Are pesticide and mercury concentrations correlated with biomarkers of adverse health impacts of sportfish in the Columbia River Basin?
- Is there a human health risk due to pesticide and mercury in sportfish harvested from the Columbia River basin?
- Is the body condition of ducks harvested by hunters in the Pacific Flyway adversely impacted by environmental mercury exposures?
- Is there a human health risk due to mercury in ducks harvested in the Pacific Flyway?
- Are viruses risk factors associated with the genesis of liver or skin tumors?
The following are the data releases from this science team’s research activities.
Estrogen equivalents of surface water and smallmouth bass estrogenic biomarker data in New Jersey, 2016-2017
Below are publications associated with this science team.
Environmental and anthropogenic drivers of contaminants in agricultural watersheds with implications for land management
Widespread use of the nitrification inhibitor nitrapyrin: Assessing benefits and costs to agriculture, ecosystems, and environmental health
Groundwater discharges as a source of phytoestrogens and other agriculturally derived contaminants to streams
Assessing the ecological risks of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances: Current state‐of‐the science and a proposed path forward
Per‐ and poly‐fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) encompass a large, heterogenous group of chemicals of potential concern to human health and the environment. Based on information for a few relatively well‐understood PFAS such as perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate, there is ample basis to suspect that at least a subset can be considered persistent, bioaccumulative, and/or toxic. However, d
Assessment of microscopic pathology in fishes collected at sites impacted by wood tar in Pennsylvania
Reconnaissance of surface water estrogenicity and the prevalence of intersex in smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) inhabiting New Jersey
Malignant melanoma of Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) in Lake Memphremagog, Vermont/Quebec
Contaminant concentrations in sediments, aquatic invertebrates, and fish in proximity to rail tracks used for coal transport in the Pacific Northwest: A baseline assessment
Estrogen receptor 1 expression and methylation of Esr1 promoter in mouse fetal prostate mesenchymal cells induced by gestational exposure to bisphenol A or ethinylestradiol
Toward sustainable environmental quality: Priority research questions for North America
Atrazine induced transgenerational reproductive effects in medaka (Oryzias latipes)
Bisphenol A and 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol-induced transgenerational differences in expression of osmoregulatory genes in the gill of medaka (Oryzias latipes)
The Fishing and Hunting integrated science team focuses on contaminant and pathogen exposures in the environment that could impact the presence and vitality of fish and wildlife populations that drive commercial, recreational and subsistence activities such as hunting and fishing. If actual risks are identified this project will inform how to economically and effectively minimize risk by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants and pathogens. Emphasis will be placed on addressing these issues on public and Department of the Interior managed landscapes.
Fish and wildlife that are healthy, abundant, and safe to eat drive many economically valuable commercial, recreational, and subsistence activities, and are a treasured part of the American landscape.
Contaminant and pathogen exposures are known to influence these natural resources. Team scientists together with other federal, state, and university collaborators, conduct scientific research that provides information to economically and effectively minimize risk to fish and wildlife by understanding the environmental transport, fate, exposure pathways, and potential effects of contaminants and pathogens. Because fish and wildlife can move over sometimes large distances, the Team studies exposure to contaminants and pathogens across landscapes, particularly on public lands and those managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Current Science Questions and Activities
![Micrograph of testes from male smallmouth bass](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/male_smallmouth_bass_oocytes_blazer.jpg?itok=X4Gn_I8I)
- Are sport fish in the Northeast U.S. exposed to chemical contaminants that are adversely affecting their health, reproduction and populations?
- How important are contaminants in relation to other risk factors (climatic, water quality, parasite, pathogen) influencing adverse health effects in Northeast United States sport fish?
- What is the susceptibility of black bass to formation of intersex from exposure to endocrine disrupting contaminants?
- Do exposures to endocrine disrupting contaminants during early development cause adverse outcomes later in life in wild fish.
- Are sublethal contaminant exposures causing waterfowl mortalities due to secondary factors such as starvation?
- What are the land use, habitat, and ecological factors that control pesticide and mercury exposures in sportfish from the Columbia River Basin?
- Are pesticide and mercury concentrations correlated with biomarkers of adverse health impacts of sportfish in the Columbia River Basin?
- Is there a human health risk due to pesticide and mercury in sportfish harvested from the Columbia River basin?
- Is the body condition of ducks harvested by hunters in the Pacific Flyway adversely impacted by environmental mercury exposures?
- Is there a human health risk due to mercury in ducks harvested in the Pacific Flyway?
- Are viruses risk factors associated with the genesis of liver or skin tumors?
The following are the data releases from this science team’s research activities.
Estrogen equivalents of surface water and smallmouth bass estrogenic biomarker data in New Jersey, 2016-2017
Below are publications associated with this science team.
Environmental and anthropogenic drivers of contaminants in agricultural watersheds with implications for land management
Widespread use of the nitrification inhibitor nitrapyrin: Assessing benefits and costs to agriculture, ecosystems, and environmental health
Groundwater discharges as a source of phytoestrogens and other agriculturally derived contaminants to streams
Assessing the ecological risks of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances: Current state‐of‐the science and a proposed path forward
Per‐ and poly‐fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) encompass a large, heterogenous group of chemicals of potential concern to human health and the environment. Based on information for a few relatively well‐understood PFAS such as perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate, there is ample basis to suspect that at least a subset can be considered persistent, bioaccumulative, and/or toxic. However, d