Summary

Description

Clearly, the egg residues confirm the continued exposure of Service trust resources to a suite of organic and inorganic contaminants within the Great Lakes ecosystem. The levels of these residues also suggest continued reproductive impairment in these species, as well as others not assessed in the present study. Whether impacts to trust resources are occurring and to what extent, if any, egg residues and body burdens of these contaminants decline over time is a subject which should be addressed through continued monitoring. Such a monitoring effort should be expanded to all Service islands and coastal lands within the Great Lakes, perhaps to be eventually incorporated into the Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends Program being developed by the National Biological Service. Such a survey effort would entail several visits to all sites to make egg collections, sample appropriate tissues from adults and juveniles, assess rates of deformities in hatchlings and addled eggs, and determine productivities of selected species.