Principal Investigator(s): (Include name, affiliation and email address):

• Main Authors: Mrs Barbara Hyde, Contaminants Other
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Gulf of Alaska; Kodiak; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.612.9977; http://doc.nprb.org/web/07_prjs/727(70).pdf

Summary of Proposed Work: TBT is among the most toxic compounds ever released into the environment and is a potential threat to subsistence harvest, mariculture, and natural populations of marine resources in Alaska. It is likely that TBT contamination will remain a threat in Alaskan large ship ports because existing supplies of TBT antifouling paints can continue to be used on cruise ships and TBT is unregulated in most Asia countries, with whom shipping is projected to increase over time. The PIs propose an assessment of tributyltin (TBT) impacts throughout Southeast Alaska and the Gulf of Alaska to determine whether TBT levels are elevated in ports used by large ships and to obtain baseline data for long-term monitoring of nearshore ecosystems. TBT contamination impacts will be quantified in, and adjacent to, harbors by quantifying TBT levels in bay mussels (Mytilus trossulus) and imposex in file dogwinkles (Nucella lima). Preliminary data from Auke Bay, Alaska, suggests TBT contamination remains a threat despite a ban on TBT paints in the U.S. This is likely due to contamination from large ships. At two sites, AukeBay and Kodiak, new data will be compared to data from a study conducted over 20 years ago to examine changes in TBT distribution and