Some of the Chesapeake Bay?s fish have grotesque tumors or noxious, pollution-filled fillets because of two pollutants leading the Chesapeake Bay Program?s recently updated “toxics of concern” list.
The list which monitors toxic substances was updated for the first time since 1999, said Josh Voelker, program spokesman.
Polycholorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which cause neurological damage when ingested by humans, topped the list.
Second was polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which lead to liver and skin tumors in brown bullhead catfish.
PCBs have not been legally manufactured in the nation since 1977, said Fred Pinkney, senior biologist for environmental contaminants for the Bay field office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
PCBs, which are used in some electrical transformers, reach fish through air pollution and water runoff and linger in fish fillets and crab meat, Pinkney said.
They are a major factor in the Maryland Department of the Environment?s fish consumption advisories, which warn people against eating large quantities of contaminated fish.
PAHs, which are carcinogens, get into the Bay from pollutants such as car oil and asphalt sealants.
A study in spring 2005 found skin tumors on 53 percent of the brown bullhead catfish in the South River because of PAHs, Pinkneysaid.
However, “most of the fish in the Bay are healthy. There?s only a problem around Baltimore City or maybe the Patapsco River,” said Larry Simms, president of the Maryland Waterman?s Association, a nonprofit representing commercial watermen.
