Contaminants in seafoods

Flooding creates runoff which can include a range of contaminants, such as pesticides, that inevitably ends up in our estuaries and possibly the food chain. However, little data is available to assess the amount in the environment or the affects on the health of key seafood species such as crabs, prawns, shellfish and fish.

Projects in this field will:

• Expand existing research about the impacts of flooding on contaminants and pesticides found in crabs across a broader geographic area and greater replication helping to enhance the data quality.
• Collect preliminary data to aid in the design of a surveillance program for neonicotinoid contaminants in a representative set of NSW seafood species.
• Make recommendations on the design of a feasible long-term monitoring program that accounts for both background contamination and response to any elevated risk following floods.