Recent Advances in Contaminant Assessment Offer Proactive Alternatives for Managing Contaminated Fisheries

For a variety of reasons, many fisheries managers seem reluctant to get involved in contaminant issues even though the effect on fisheries can be far‐reaching. The involvement of fisheries managers in this process is critical, and recent advances in assessment techniques offer hope that a more active management of contaminated fisheries is possible. Managing contaminated systems is often limited to contaminant analysis of fish tissue (and sometimes water and sediment), community surveys, and posting of consumption advisories. New approaches using advanced statistical analyses, simulation modeling, and bioindicators of environmental stress offer additional tools that can be used to better understand the transport and fate of contaminants, to assess potential ecological injury, and to evaluate proposed remedial actions. For these tools to be useful in management situations, managers and researchers will need to cooperate in both the development and use of these new techniques.