The oil sands industry is rapidly expanding surface mining and bitumen extraction operations near the Athabasca River in northeastern Alberta, Canada. There are anecdotal comments that the fish from the Athabasca River have an off-taste, implying that the oil sands operations are the cause. This study was done to determine if the taste of wild fishes caught near the Athabasca oil sands was less preferred than the taste of fishes collected from two other river basins in Alberta. In blinded experiments, consumer sensory panels, of 40 to 44 participants, tasted steamed samples of each of three fish species (walleye (Sander vitreus), northern pike (Esox lucius), and lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis)) from three different sources in Alberta (the Athabasca River, Buck Lake, and McGregor Lake). Data analyses showed that there was no evidence from the consumer preference rankings that the taste of the fish from the Athabasca River was preferred less than the taste of fish from two other water bodies in Alberta.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.