Abstract

Control of aquatic pollution is critical for improving coastal zone management and for the conservation of fisheries resources. Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) countries generally lack monitoring capacity and reliable information on levels and distribution of pollutants, particularly advanced chemicals, or the ecological and/or human health risks. Given the substantial cultural and economic importance of coastalenvironments to WCR communities, this should be cause for serious concern.This paper describes a monitoring program for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the coastal fish species, white grunt (Haemulon plumieri) chosen for its wide distribution and philopatric behaviour. It highlights lessons learned on improving capacity for environmental monitoring of POPs andhow an effective south-south network between academic institutions, laboratories and management agencies was built. Data are reported for Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico. Overall, PCB and organochlorine concentrations were low relative to threshold levels used to address human health concerns from contaminated seafood. However, since this fish species occupies low to mid-trophic levels in the marine food web, there is a risk of higher contaminant concentrations accumulating in top trophic level piscivorous fish and birds. Identifiedsources of contaminants include domestic sewage, agriculture and industry, large continental rivers and atmospheric deposition. For example, data indicate that atmospheric deposition is a likely source of POPs in Belize and St. Lucia. Currently, these are the only data available on POPs contamination in fish distributed across the WCR, but will hopefully lead to future studies, increased awareness and strengthening of coastal pollution management.