LSU alumnus Kevin Fitzwilliam noticed the fishermen who lined the LSU lakes and leisurely cast their fishing poles into the water as the day wound down. This observation prompted Fitzwilliam to approach environmental studies assistant professor Aixin Hou with a proposal for a new research project in May. “It was nearing graduation, and I realized something that I wanted to do since I got to LSU is use the campus as an outdoor laboratory,” Fitzwilliam said. Fitzwilliam wanted to inform LSU students about their environmental surroundings by testing the levels of mercury and pathogen indicators in the fish living in the University’s lakes. He had no prior experience with water quality or mercury testing. He said many students have contact with the lakes, whether they jog around them, live near them or even drive past them. “I wanted to do something that’s really tangible for LSU students,” he said. “In general, when you talk to people, nobody really knows how healthy their immediate surroundings are.” Dead fish were discovered floating in the lake behind Blake Hall last semester. The fish died because of decreased oxygen levels in the water, a cause unrelated to mercury levels. After he bought his fishing license, Fitzwilliam and a fisherman he met at the lakes caught 20 small brim, a common fish found in the lakes. He transported the fish to a laboratory in the Coastal Studies Building, recorded their measurements and weights, sliced them into fillets and froze them. He performed the same procedure with five larger fish that were also caught from the LSU lakes. Fitzwilliam used a scalpel to blend each fish into a mushy substance to evenly disperse the mercury. He saturated the substance in a solution to decompose the fishes’ tissue, so only mercury was left behind in the Petri dish. For his final step, he compared the new solution with the original fish. “None of the fish surpassed the allowable limit of mercury,” he said. “None were at dangerous levels.” Shannon Soileau, a Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals environmental health scientist, said all people have a small amount of mercury in their body, but don’t experience symptoms until the levels build up. She said high levels of mercury can cause disruptions in vision and hearing, birth defects and tingling in extremities such as fingers and toes. Fitzwilliam said most people don’t have to worry about health problems caused by mercury, but it is still a problem for children under the age of seven and women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. “It causes problems with your neurological system,” he said. Soileau said there are currently 41 fish advisories in Louisiana, one in the Gulf of Mexico and 40 in various freshwater bodies. “We just want people to be informed,” Soileau said. “We want them not to stop eating fish, but to be aware of what advisories are out there.” Fitzwilliam said his biggest drawback was that he was only able to catch small fish and test only five large fish. He said mercury bioaccumulates, which means larger predator fish at the top of the food chain typically have higher levels of mercury. Fitzwilliam filled sterilized bottles with water from the lakes on Monday to test for enterococci bacteria, an indicator of fecal pollution. He used a technique called membrane filtration to separate the bacteria from the water. Although he is not sure what may cause fecal pollution in the lakes, Fitzwilliam expects to filter hundreds or even thousands of bacteria colonies. Fitzwilliam said he hopes someone else will take his project to a more detailed level since he graduated in May. “Maybe this type of work can become part of the department’s curriculum,” he said.
_____Contact Angelle Barbazon at [email protected]