The Passaic River Creel/Angler Survey: Expert Panel Review, Findings, and Recommendations

Abstract

A Creel/Angler Survey (CAS) was conducted to provide site-specific information on recreational fishing in the lower six miles of the Passaic River (Study Area). Information collected during the CAS will be used to develop site-specific exposure factors, including fish consumption rates, for use in the human health risk assessment required by an Administrative Order on Consent as part of the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study for the Study Area. An expert panel was convened to provide an independent opinion regarding the need for, design of, and implementation of the CAS. The expert panel was charged with evaluating whether the conduct of a CAS is necessary to support an accurate risk assessment for the Study Area and whether the proposed CAS is sufficient to characterize local fish consumption behavior for risk assessment purposes. The expert panel agreed that a CAS is necessary and concluded that the proposed CAS, with specific modifications to the study design and data analysis, would provide the information necessary to estimate site-specific fish consumption rates. Revision of the CAS to accommodate the expert panel recommendations enhanced the quality of the data collected and ensured that the data will support the assessment of human health risks from consumption of fish from the Study Area.

Noncommercial Fish Consumption and Anglers at Risk

“…Because the mail survey did not reach non-licensed anglers, and there were few nonwhite respondents, the external advisory group working with the State requested a study in more racially diverse regions (see Finley et al, 2003, for an example of the role of advisory panels in fish consumption research). An on-site survey was administered during the spring and summer of 1998 to people actively fishing in metropolitan areas, using the same questionnaire as in the mail survey.…”

“…27. ) Site-specific information could help guide communication strategies to reduce risk for anglers (Burger et al, 1990;Finley, et al, 2003). Yet, simply issuing consumption advisory warnings may not be sufficient.…”

“…Consumption rates matched to segments in geographic areas are needed to assess risk to anglers (Finley et al, 2003). One approach to measuring risk has been to identify a threshold level of consumption and then to determine which anglers eat above that level.…”

A Statistical Method for Analyzing Data Collected by a Creel/Angler Survey (Part 2)

“…As described in detail by Finley et al (2003), the industrialized nature of the Study Area is such that angling activities are expected to be fairly infrequent; however, to date, most consumption surveys conducted in the United States involved sampling fairly large angler populations in areas where fish and/or shellfish are known to be caught and consumed with some regularity. Accordingly, it was determined that in order to perform an accurate human health risk assessment of the Study Area, published fish consumption rates from other settings would be unlikely to accurately reflect consumption rates in the Study Area.…”

A conceptual framework for the integral management of marine protected areas

“…This group was formed by experts in: fisheries, MPAs, marine ecology, mathematics, statistics and multi-criteria analysis. The expert panel, such as those proposed for other purposes [5,37,38] was formed by a principal committee which led the process. This principal committee analysed different methodological approaches and selected the DPSIR framework, among all of them.…”