RAP Progress in the Rochester Embayment of Lake Ontario: Population Monitoring, Trophic Relationships, and Levels of Bioaccumulative Chemicals of Concern in Mink, a Sentinel Species

Abstract

In the 1980s the binational (Canada, U.S.) International Joint Commission (IJC) began the process of creating and implementing remedial action plans (RAPs) in 43 contaminated areas of concern (AOCs) throughout the Great Lakes Basin. The IJC established 14 “use impairments” that could cause a local area to be “listed” as an AOC, including “degradation of fish and wildlife populations” and “bird or animal deformities or reproductive problems.” In 1988, Foley et al. reported that fish in Lake Ontario and the Genesee River had PCB concentrations within the range shown to cause reproductive failure in captive mink. This evidence, coupled with the perceived absence of mink within 2 miles of the lake, led to the inclusion of these two use impairments in the RAP (1993, 1997). This study (Haynes et al. 2002) was designed to determine if populations of mink on the shore of the Rochester Embayment of Lake Ontario (RELO) are negatively impacted by bioaccumulative chemicals of concern (BCCs) and, if so, whether the BCCs are originating in the Embayment watershed or elsewhere. The AOC includes the Embayment, a 35 square mile portion of Lake Ontario south of a line between Bogus Point in the town of Parma and Nine Mile Point in the town of Webster (both in Monroe County, New York); adjacent wetlands and bays; and the six mile reach of the Genesee River, from the Lower Falls to the mouth at Lake Ontario (Figure 1). The RAP also includes the sub-watersheds of Salmon Creek (western sub-basin), the Genesee River, and Irondequoit Creek (central sub-basin).