Fish Tissue Sampling Data: 2000-2001

This book contains contaminant data for fish and shellfish samples collected from Texas waters by the Seafood Safety Division (SSD) of the Texas Department of Health (TDH). With only one exception, the division collected samples in calendar years 2000 and 2001. Samples collected in 1999 from Lavaca Bay (Cox Bay) were inadvertently omitted from 1998-1999 Fish Tissue Data, so are included in this book. Data collected in 2002 from Lake Timpson and Lake Nacogdoches were combined with data collected from these reservoirs in 2000. The Seafood Safety Division collected these samples, with a single exception: the Fort Worth Environmental Management Department (FWEM) and the TDH SSD collected samples from three urban lakes in Fort Worth (Lake Como, Echo Lake, and Fosdic Lake) on different occasions. The Seafood Safety Division uses contaminant data to assess potential health risks from consumption of chemically contaminated fish and shellfish from Texas waters. The Texas Department of Health may, in part, base regulatory decision and consumption advice for fish and shellfish taken from Texas water upon these data. The TDH laboratory in Austin, TX, analyzed all tissue samples for this compilation. Some tissue samples are composites of more than one fish. Each crab tissue samples consists of several crab specimens. TDH analyzed edible fish fillets (skin off) or edible portions of shellfish for numerous contaminants, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCS). The data tables contain results for each chemical (wet weigh concentration) even if the contaminant was not detected. Cells in the tables are shaded to identify detectable/quantifiable contaminant concentrations. For each sampling area, SSD included in this volume maps of locations and sampling sites, and - for those areas with multiple sampling locations - a brief verbal description of each sample location. The book also contains the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ; formerly the TNRCC) stream segment and sequence in which each water body or sampling site is located, along with the latitude and longitude for individual sampling sites (recorded in the field by a global positioning system (GPS) receiver).