24 



capacity in their operation. EPA, through their water program, be- 

 cause of this has identified several hundred sites around the coun- 

 try. They are primarily in freshwater and lakes and rivers or in 

 the near shore area, and closely monitors the contaminants in 

 those areas. 



In addition, EPA works with the States to issue advisories, and 

 there are approximately 1,200 advisories that are issued annually 

 to potential consumers of the fish or shellfish. I must add that 

 based on a recent report from EPA, it was determined that essen- 

 tially all of the hazard associated with this is limited to recreation- 

 al fishers, that there are no commercial fishing operations in these 

 areas. We do not see, based on our monitoring, any significant level 

 of chemical contamination out in the open ocean environment. 



Mr. Billy. Occasionally you can detect a very limited or very 

 small amounts of certain contaminants, but it is not common and 

 it is not an area of significant concern to us. 



Mr. Hamburg. Anyone else? 



Mr. Bill Taylor. I would say that it is not a chemical or a — 

 toxic contamination is not a problem with the domestic industry 

 for the most part. Our regulations are good, tight on a lot of the 

 chemicals, and the harvest does not occur — for commercial harvest, 

 at least, does not occur in those areas. 



I think one of our major concerns is that those countries that 

 import into the U.S. do not have MOUs. We do not really know. 

 There is minimal amount of inspection as the product comes into 

 the U.S. but we have some major concerns about what is coming 

 into the country from other countries that do not have programs 

 that are equivalent to ours. 



Mr. Hamburg. In this background memo that was handed out to 

 the Committee it stated that recreational subsistence harvest of 

 fish present the second highest risk category to consumers. 



I was wondering if anyone could comment on specific problems. 

 Do they exist mostly in urban areas that have high pollution, these 

 ones you mentioned, or do they also exist on some of the- — you 

 know, when I think of recreational subsistence fisheries, I think of 

 the Native American fisheries of the Pacific Northwest. 



Are we having problems in rural areas in addition to in these 

 polluted urban waters? 



Dr. Foster. I can't speak directly to that. NOAA does have a 

 status and trends program where we monitor environmental condi- 

 tions around the country, not the actual organism or animal itself, 

 but what we find is that the pollution is concentrated in various 

 hot spots around the country, such as Puget Sound, and off Miami. 



So fish taken from these areas are the ones more likely, I think, 

 to cause a problem. 



Mr. Hamburg. And in terms of what we are doing to try to mini- 

 mize those risk and remove those risks, that mainly is in EPA's 

 territory; is that right? 



Mr. Billy. In terms of monitoring the fish and shellfish out in 

 the environment, I think that is correct, in addition to what NOAA 

 does. However, we include a — we have an extensive contaminant 

 monitoring program as part of our seafood program and we analyze 

 over 2,000 samples annually taken from the marketplace, from all 

 different sources for various types of chemical contaminants. 



