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Introduction
The Great Lakes of North America contain 21% of the world’s surface fresh water and are rich in flora and fauna. The Great Lakes house > 140 types of fish, ranging from panfish to large top-predator fish (Cudmore-Vokey and Crossman 2000). These lakes have supported one of the world’s largest freshwater fisheries for over a century, and their annual contribution is valued at > 5 billion USD [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2015]. The value and total economic impact of the recreational fisheries far exceed those of the commercial fisheries (NOAA 2015). More than 4 million adults in the U.S. Great Lakes region consume a variety of fish harvested from the Great Lakes every year, and the adults’ consumption is related to their children’s consumption (Turyk et al. 2012). There are > 1 million anglers in Ontario, Canada, and Lakes Erie, Huron, and Ontario are in the top 10 preferred fishing locations for Ontario anglers (Awad 2006; Fisheries and Oceans Canada 2012). Many of the > 160 Aboriginal communities located around the Great Lakes rely on a variety of Great Lakes fish for food (Turyk et al. 2012). For example, a survey of the eating patterns of First Nations people in the Great Lakes basin found that ~84% of the participants consumed on average approximately 20 to 35 fish meals in 1 year [Effects on Aboriginals from the Great Lakes Environment (EAGLE) 2001].
Industrial and agricultural activities have had an impact on the water quality of the Great Lakes through the introduction of toxic substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, dioxins and furans, and pesticides (Bhavsar et al. 2007c, 2008a, 2010; Murphy et al. 2012). The elevated levels of contaminants in fish have resulted in fish consumption advisories to limit human exposure to contaminants to a safe level [Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (OMOECC) 2015; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2015]. These advisories issued by the province of Ontario for the Canadian waters and by Great Lakes states for the U.S. waters of the Great Lakes are typically based on the most restrictive contaminant [Great Lakes Sport Fish Advisory Task Force (GLSFATF) 1993; OMOECC 2015]. In this approach, fish consumption advisory benchmarks (e.g., see Table S1) are utilized to...