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SAN DIEGO, Wednesday, March 30, 2005 – People can safely consume more than six times the amount of Salton Sea fish than previously advised, according to a new San Diego State University study.

A team of Salton Sea researchers, led by ecology doctoral candidate Marie Françoise Moreau, will present the study today at the Salton Sea Centennial Symposium at the San Diego Hilton in Mission Valley. The results will soon be published in the journal Hydrobiologia.

“A person can eat three pounds of Salton Sea fish a month for an entire life and be within EPA safety guidelines,” Moreau said.

The study counters a 1986 health advisory that indicated people should not consume more than four ounces of Salton Sea fish in a two-week period because of high selenium levels. Since the advisory was issued, recreational fishing at the Salton Sea has sharply declined.

Moreau's new risk assessment shows that selenium levels in Salton Sea fish are about the same as in 1986 and that Salton Sea fish may have long been safer eating than ocean fish caught at many points along California's Pacific coast. However, the study did find arsenic in the fish and, based on EPA guidelines for arsenic, people should not consume more than 26 to 46 ounces of Salton Sea fish every two weeks.

Experts believe the study’s findings will help attract sport fishermen to the Salton Sea when the fishing there improves.

“Restoring the value and quality of the sport fishery is a key component of the proposed restoration plan for the Salton Sea," said Ron Enzweiler, executive director of the Salton Sea Authority. “At present fish populations are at very low levels, for reasons the scientists don't completely understand. But if we can lower the salinity level and otherwise improve water quality on a sustainable basis, Moreau's findings show that the Salton Sea can once again become the best inland sport fishery in the state.”

EPA consumption rate risk assessments are based on a person eating that amount of fish every two weeks throughout a 70-year lifetime. In the case of arsenic, if a person eats 46 ounces of tilapia every two weeks, that person’s cancer risk might increase, on average, from about 20 percent to about 20.001 percent.

“These new risk assessments show the critical role of scientific research in the understanding and management of large, important ecosystems like the Salton Sea,” said Douglas Barnum, co-chairman of the symposium and acting chief scientist of the Salton Sea Science Office, which has overseen most scientific work at the Sea since 1997.

“It is a pity this work could not have been done 10 or 20 years ago,” he said. “There remain many critical gaps in our knowledge of the Salton Sea's ecology and how that ecology impacts people, wildlife, and the regional economy. We pay a price when we try to do science on a piecemeal basis. But except for brief periods during 1954-1956 and 1998-2004, funding for serious research on the Salton Sea ecosystem has always been scarce. Managers want and will use good science if it is brought to them in a timely manner. But if this is lacking they need to move ahead and make decisions without the science.”

Moreau's collaborators in this study include SDSU professors Stuart Hurlbert and Rick Gersberg, former SDSU graduate students Janie Surico-Bennett and Marie Vicario-Fisher, David Crane of California Fish and Game, and Russell Gerards of Frontier Geosciences. The study was sponsored by the Salton Sea Authority, Salton Sea Science Office, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information about the symposium, visit www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/2005Symposium.html.

San Diego State University is the oldest and largest higher education institution in the San Diego region. Since it was founded in 1897, the university has grown to offer bachelor’s degrees in 81 areas, master’s degrees in 72 areas and doctorates in 16 areas. SDSU’s nearly 33,000 students participate in an academic curriculum distinguished by direct contact with faculty and an increasing international emphasis that prepares them for a global future. For more information, visit www.sdsu.edu.

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