ABSTRACT
To a greater or lesser extent, all ecological receptors contacting contaminated environmental media develop a chemical body burden. Fish undoubtedly bear the greatest proclivity for doing so and for the most obvious of reasons, namely that the organism, in its natural state, exists fully bathed in its surrounding medium, facilitating chemical uptake that can and does occur passively. Regardless of the body compartment(s) amassing the chemical residues, there are two distinct concerns articulated in ecological risk assessments (ERAs) and ERA guidance. Since ERA claims to be concerned with the welfare of aquatic ecological resources, and fish indisputably assimilate chemical residues, there is a distinct need to know if residues are harmful to the fish that bear them. This matter needs to be assessed without any rumination about carry-over effects, i.e., the potential for species higher up in the food chain to be chemically overcome.
