We collected 849 fish of 16 species from New York portions of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the intervening Niagara River and its tributary Cayuga Creek, and analyzed fillets from individual fish for total mercury. Concentrations ranged from 0.029 to 1.090 ppm wet weight, with 92% below the EPA tissue residue criterion of 0.3 ppm, and thus not posing an undue risk from human consumption. We compared these 2010–2017 results to historical data spanning 40 years to assess temporal changes. The temporal pattern was generally consistent among water bodies and species: Mercury concentrations differed little between the most recent collections and fish taken from 1999–2008 and 1988–1996, while concentrations in all three of these periods were generally lower than in 1970. Smallmouth Bass from Lake Ontario were an exception with a continued decline, likely due to diet change following the introduction of exotic prey. Overall, though, fish tissue mercury concentrations from these large water bodies, which integrate regional influences, appear to have changed little in the last quarter century. We also report a consistent spatial pattern for multiple species having lower mercury concentrations in Lake Erie than in Lake Ontario over the period of record.

我们从伊利湖，安大略湖和中间的尼亚加拉河及其支流卡尤加河的纽约部分收集了849种16种鱼类，并分析了各个鱼类的鱼片中的总汞。浓度范围为湿重0.029至1.090 ppm，低于EPA组织残留标准0.3 ppm的92％，因此不会造成人类食用的不必要风险。我们将这些2010–2017年的结果与40年的历史数据进行了比较，以评估时间变化。水体和物种之间的时间格局总体上是一致的：从1999-2008年和1988-1996年采集的最新鱼类和鱼类之间的汞浓度差异不大，而这三个时期的汞浓度总体上都低于1970年。来自安大略湖的情况不断下降，可能是由于引进外来猎物后饮食改变所致。总体而言，这些大型水体中的鱼组织汞浓度综合了区域影响，在上个四分之一世纪中似乎变化不大。我们还报告了在记录期间，伊利湖中的汞浓度低于安大略湖中的多种汞的一致的空间格局。