Two notorious Great Lakes invaders — the zebra mussel and the round goby — now play a central role in transferring toxic chemicals called PCBs up the food chain and into Saginaw Bay walleyes, one of that region’s most popular sport fish.
The links between zebra mussels, round gobies and contaminated Saginaw Bay walleyes is a disturbing example of unanticipated problems that can occur when non-native species get loose in the Great Lakes, says fishery biologist David Jude, lead author of a paper on the topic published online April 9 in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.
“This zebra mussel-to-goby link in Great Lakes contaminated areas is one of the main conduits of PCB transfer to top aquatic predators such as the walleye, and it plays a substantial role in PCB transfer to birds, mammals and reptiles in the region as well,” says Jude, a research scientist at the School of Natural Resources and Environment.
Between 2005 and 2007 Jude’s team collected various species of fish, as well as zebra mussels and zooplankton, in the Tittabawassee River, the Saginaw River and Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay, then measured how much PCBs they contained.
“Though the levels of PCBs in Saginaw Bay walleyes have declined sharply in recent years, these toxic substances continue to show up at levels high enough to warrant concern,” Jude says.
The highest levels were seen in the largest walleyes, which contained an average of 1,900 nanograms of PCBs per gram — just under the 2,000 nanogram Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threshold for mandatory fish-consumption advisories. A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.
Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are manmade chemicals that were once used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications. But manufacture of PCBs was banned in the United States in 1979, and EPA now classifies the chemicals as probable human carcinogens.
Beginning in the 1940s factories, chemical manufacturers and municipal wastewater treatment plants discharged PCBs into the Saginaw River; many of the PCBs settled into river-bottom sediments. The contamination led to advisories against human consumption of selected species and sizes of fish from the Saginaw River, as well as many species of fish in the Bay.
In 2000-01 the mouth of the Saginaw River was dredged to remove accumulated sediments contaminated with PCBs, metals and various hazardous compounds. Since then, the level of PCBs has dropped precipitously in Saginaw Bay walleyes.
The walleye is the top predator in the Saginaw Bay ecosystem, and the bay’s world-class walleye fishery is a key part of the $7 billion-a-year Great Lakes fishery.
Walleyes prey on round gobies, which in turn gorge on bottom-dwelling zebra mussels that suck up massive amounts of lake water. Each fingernail-size zebra mussel filters up to a liter of water per day — taking in any toxic substances present in the water. Some of those contaminants are incorporated into the mussels’ tissues and shells, and round gobies eat the little mollusks shell and all.
“Zebra mussels can accumulate relatively high concentrations of PCBs, which can then be transferred to round gobies and eventually to walleyes,” Jude says.
Stephen Hensler of U-M also was an author on the study.
