Database: National Survey of Mercury Concentrations in Fish (1990-1995)

The Environmental Protection Agency began a cooperative effort in 1995
to assemble a nationwide data base on total mercury concentrations in
fish tissue. The first objective of this project was to assemble and
review data on the mercury contamination in fish tissue. This step
included identifying appropriate state and federal agencies and other
groups with relevant data on mercury concentrations in fish. The
second step in this project involved the development of a fish tissue
data base, organizing relevant data to be used for future
analyses. EPA focused data compilation efforts on obtaining results of
state monitoring efforts during 1990-1995. These data can be used to
derive estimates of tissue concentrations, determine the number and
frequency of samples taken and analyzed by state, and calculate
descriptive statistics on mercury concentrations in fish tissue.

The information for this metadata was collected from the EPA web site
at "http://www.epa.gov/ost/fish/mercurydata.html".