Toxic chemicals that can accumulate in fish and harm people who eat them have contaminated more than half of the Chesapeake Bay?s tributaries, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program.
“We want people to know what?s going on with fish contamination,” program spokesman Josh Voelker said.
The nonprofit compiled information about the contaminants from state agencies in the Bay?s watershed and has recently released the findings.
About 53 percent of the Bay?s watersheds have dangerous levels of chemicals that contaminate fish, toxics coordinator Greg Allen said. High levels of Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were the biggest problem, Allen said.
The chemical can cause liver damage, nausea, eye irritation, dizziness and bronchitis in humans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency?s Web site. In other animals, it can cause reproductive problems and tumors.
PCBs have not been legally manufactured in the nation since the 1970s, said Fred Pinkney, senior biologist for environmental contaminants for the Bay field office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in an earlier interview.
“Even though PCBs have been banned from production, there are still some in use,” he said. “It?s so persistent that it is going away very, very slowly. They are used in some electrical transformers, paints, plastics and rubber products and reach fish through air pollution and water runoff.”
PCBs 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. The contaminant causes warnings about American eel, carp, striped bass, trout and other fish.
The Bay program found dangerous levels of PCBs in fish tissues on the western shore of Maryland and in the Bush, Patapsco, Magothy and South rivers. The report also states that there are high levels on the Eastern Shore and in the Chester, Corsica, Bohemia and Sassafras rivers.
