Fish Mercury Long Term Monitoring 2006 Annual Data Report Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Office of Research and Standards Boston, MA December 2010 FISH MERCURY LONG-TERM MONITORING 2006 ANNUAL DATA REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS Page # INTRODUCTION 1 DATA 1 REFERENCES 6 APPENDIX - Raw Tissue Mercury Concentration Data LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Annual Species Trends in Mean Size-Adjusted Fish Tissue Mercury Concentrations (mg/kg), 1994-2006 3 Figure 2. Size-adjusted Fish Tissue Mercury in Six Lakes First Tested in 2006 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Raw Mean Mercury Concentrations in Fish, 2006 2 Table 2. 2006 Lake Water Chemistry 5 Table 3. 2006 Water Physical Characteristics at Fish Sampling 6 MassDEP ii FISH MERCURY LONG-TERM MONITORING 2006 ANNUAL DATA REPORT INTRODUCTION This Report presents data collected as part of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Fish Mercury Long Term Monitoring Research Program. An overview of the research program and the methods used for data collection, analysis and study design are presented in a separate report (MassDEP, 2010). The lakes sampled in the program and attributes of the lakes, including their geographic location, are in the Methods Report. The sampling schedule and number of fish collected at each sampling event may also be found in the Methods Report. Annual fish mercury data reports will be posted on Mass DEP’s website. Annual data will also be periodically integrated into the fish mercury research database accessed through the data portal on the MassDEP website (http://public.dep.state.ma.us/fish/). This integrated database contains fish tissue mercury data and associated physico-chemical data for water and sediments of the lakes which are sampled. The Annual Data Reports do not include an interpretation of the fish mercury testing results. The purpose of the reports is to document the results of fish mercury testing. Interpretation of the data will be provided in a future report. The data collected in 2006 are presented below. DATA The lakes sampled in 2006 and statistical summaries of the edible fish tissue mercury concentrations are presented in Table 1. No largemouth bass were collected from Buckley Dunton Lake in Becket and Pelham Lake in Rowe. Largemouth bass have been collected from Buckley Dunton Lake in previous years, but the population is small based on the numbers collected. Largemouth bass have not been collected from Pelham Lake in Rowe. Small samples of largemouth bass and yellow perch were collected at Lowe Pond and Goose Pond, MassDEP 1 FISH MERCURY LONG-TERM MONITORING 2006 ANNUAL DATA REPORT Table 1. 2006 Fish Mercury Concentration Means and Standard Deviations Lake SP Mean SD Min Max N SP Mean SD Min Max N Lake Attitash LMB 0.51 0.26 0.22 1.03 15 YP 0.20 0.06 0.10 0.34 30 Baldpate Pond LMB 0.49 0.15 0.25 0.77 12 YP 0.19 0.06 0.12 0.25 3 Bare Hill Pond LMB 0.43 0.31 0.14 1.05 15 YP 0.22 0.13 0.05 0.63 30 Buckley Dunton LMB 0 YP 0.34 0.11 0.19 0.65 30 Lake Lake Buel LMB 0.25 0.09 0.14 0.39 15 YP 0.21 0.13 0.06 0.48 22 Chadwicks Pond LMB 0.79 0.25 0.32 1.16 10 YP 0.29 0.20 0.15 0.43 2 Chebacco Lake LMB 0.56 0.41 0.12 1.31 12 YP 0.17 0.06 0.09 0.38 30 Lake Cochichewick LMB 0.41 0.19 0.20 0.77 15 YP 0.21 0.08 0.11 0.47 30 Echo Lake LMB 0.66 0.29 0.25 1.12 15 YP 0.20 0.04 0.17 0.24 3 Lake Garfield LMB 0.45 0.17 0.23 0.83 12 YP 0.18 0.08 0.06 0.36 30 Goose Pond LMB 0.17 0.07 0.09 0.25 8 YP 0.32 0.00 0.32 0.32 1 Johnsons Pond LMB 0.67 0.45 0.18 1.60 15 YP 0.19 0.07 0.09 0.33 15 Kenoza Lake LMB 0.86 0.40 0.21 1.65 40 YP 0.36 0.20 0.10 0.92 75 Lowe Pond LMB 0.47 0.08 0.38 0.51 3 YP 0.24 0.11 0.13 0.39 4 Massapoag LMB 0.52 0.18 0.32 0.93 15 YP 0.31 0.13 0.13 0.79 30 Pond, (Dunstable) Onota Lake LMB 0.16 0.11 0.06 0.45 12 YP 0.11 0.04 0.06 0.25 30 Pelham Lake LMB 0 YP 0.30 0.09 0.17 0.53 30 Plainfield Pond LMB 0.28 0.14 0.11 0.45 10 YP 0.19 0.08 0.10 0.47 30 Stockbridge LMB 0.40 0.38 0.18 1.56 12 YP 0.14 0.04 0.06 0.26 30 Bowl Lake Wampanoag LMB 0.84 0.45 0.30 1.96 15 YP 0.37 0.17 0.15 0.84 30 Wequaquet LMB 0.91 0.31 0.25 1.47 15 YP 0.29 0.09 0.15 0.45 30 Lake KEY: SP=species; SD=standard deviation; Min=minimum; Max=maximum LMB=largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides; YP=yellow perch, Perca flavescens.. mercury concentrations in mg total mercury/kg wet weight. In order to provide perspective on the current year’s sampling results in relation to previous sampling performed in the same lakes, time series of mean size-adjusted mercury concentrations for each species are presented in Figure 1. MassDEP 2 FISH MERCURY LONG-TERM MONITORING 2006 ANNUAL DATA REPORT Figure 1. Trends in Size-Adjusted Fish Tissue Mercury 1999-2006 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.4 1.4 Baldpate 1.4 1.4 Buckley Lake Attitash Pond Bare Hill Pond 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 Dunton Lake 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 Chadwicks Pond 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 Johnsons Pond Lake Echo Lake 1.2 1.2 Cochichewick 1.2 1.2 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.4 Kenoza 1.4 1.4 Massapoag 1.4 Lake Lowe Pond Lake, Onota Lake 1.2 1.2 1.2 Dunstable 1.2 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 Mean Size-Standardized Hg Concentration, mg/kg Concentration, Hg Size-Standardized Mean 1.6 1.6 1.4 Lake 1.4 Wampanoag Wequaquet 1.2 1.2 Lake 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.6 Hg in LMB, mg/kg wet wt. Hg in YP, mg/kg wet wt. 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.0 1999 2001 2003 2005 1999 2001 2003 2005 2000 2002 2004 2006 2000 2002 2004 2006 Year The graph of trends in size-adjusted fish tissue mercury 1999-2006 (Figure 1) presents only the lakes for which more than one year’s worth of data is available. Six lakes were added to the long term monitoring study in 2006, and are not included in Figure 1. These lakes are: Lake Garfield Chebacco Lake Stockbridge Bowl Goose Pond Lake Buel Pelham Lake Mean mercury levels in fish from these lakes are shown in Figure 2. MassDEP 3 FISH MERCURY LONG-TERM MONITORING 2006 ANNUAL DATA REPORT Figure 2. Fish Tissue Mercury in Lakes First Tested in 2006 1.6 1.4 Legend: 1.2 LMB YP 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 Mean Size-Standardized Hg Concentration, mg/kg Chebacco Lake Buel Goose Pond Pelham Lake Pelham Lake Garfield Stockbridge Bowl Lake Lake water quality characteristics at the time of sampling are shown in Tables 2 and 3. Lakes were usually vertically uniform in terms of their density and temperature profiles at the time of sampling; therefore single samples for nutrient analyses were taken to represent the water column characteristics (Table 2). Data from depth profiles for temperature, pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen concentration were averaged over depth, and the means are reported in Table 3.