Progress report summarizing the reef fish sampling, PCB - Earthjustice

I (D) (7) Sample Handling, Processing and Recording
As traps and fishing tackle were brought up to the vessel, fish were emptied from
traps into plastic baskets, removed from hook and line gear with a hook remover.
Each fish was identified to species and a determination was made regarding
retaining the specimen for PCB analysis according to the Monitoring Work Plan.
Fish retained for monitoring were then transferred to ice-seawater slurry in a
dedicated food grade 96-quart “Igloo” ice chest to be euthanized and to await
measurement and processing. This was a deviation from our Monitoring Work
Plan. The Plan required that the fish once de-hooked be placed in a plastic bag
before immersing it in the seawater ice slurry. The fish were placed un-bagged
directly into the sea water/ice slurry. It was felt that the subsequent removal of fish
from the slurry and rinsing them again with ambient sea water followed by
subsequent scaling and rinsing once at the analytical lab was sufficient to avoid
additional PCB tissue contamination.
Prior to measurement, each retained fish was removed from the ice slurry, and
rinsed with ambient Gulf surface sea water collected alongside the vessel using a
project dedicated five-gallon plastic bucket. Each fish retained for PCB analysis
was assigned an alpha-numeric sample identification number (e. g., OR-RS-001) as
part of a sample identification label. “OR” was used to designate fish samples
collected from the “Oriskany Reef”; “RS” was the species specific identifier for red
snapper. “001” represented the first of a sequential number of fish samples
collected at the Oriskany Reef. The fish identification initials were based on the
first letter in each of the first and second scientifically accepted common names of
the sampled fish (Nelson et al. 2004). For example, “RP” was the identifier for red
porgy”; “VS” was the identifier for vermilion snapper, etc.
Each fish total length (TL) was measured to the nearest millimeter (mm) on a
standard fish measuring board. The ECMRD Project Co-Manager identified,
inspected, and measured all fish retained as samples during all sampling rounds.
Additionally, wearing powder-free nitrile gloves, he double-wrapped the fish
individually in laboratory grade aluminum foil, dull side toward the fish and placed
the completely foil wrapped fish in a food-grade plastic bag, sealing the top of the
bag with a plastic tamper-proof tie wrap closure attached to a Sample Identification
Label filled out by the FWC Project Co-Manager who also served as the data
recorder. Each packaged fish was then placed in a second plastic bag and sealed
with a plastic tamper-proof tie wrap attached to a Chain-of-Custody Label. The fish
measuring board and other sampling equipment were rinsed with the project
dedicated bucket containing Gulf surface seawater collected amidships while bilges
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