Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, petroleum-related compounds and chemical dispersants were detected in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, there was concern about the risk to human health through consumption of contaminated seafood in the region. Federal and Gulf Coast State agencies worked together on a sampling plan and analytical protocols to determine whether seafood was safe to eat and acceptable for sale in the marketplace. Sensory and chemical methods were used to measure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dispersant in >8,000 seafood specimens collected in federal waters of the Gulf. Overall, individual PAHs and the dispersant component dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate were found in low concentrations or below the limits of quantitation. When detected, the concentrations were at least two orders of magnitude lower than the level of concern for human health risk. Once an area closed to fishing was free of visibly floating oil and all sensory and chemical results for the seafood species within an area met the criteria for reopen-
Tamarisk (Tamarix spp., saltcedar) is a well-known invasive phreatophyte introduced from Asia to North America in the 1800s. This report compares the efficacy of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM5), QuickBird (QB) and EO-1 Hyperion data in discriminating tamarisk populations near De Beque, Colorado, USA. As a result of highly correlated reflectance among the spectral bands provided by each sensor, relatively standard image analysis methods were employed. Multispectral data at high spatial resolution (QB, 2.5 m Ground Spatial Distance or GSD) proved more effective in tamarisk delineation than either multispectral (TM5) or hyperspectral (Hyperion) data at moderate spatial resolution (30 m GSD).
Authenticity is crucial to the seafood industry, as substitution and mislabeling have important economic, environmental, and food safety consequences. To address this problem, protein profiling and software algorithm techniques were developed to classify fish muscle samples by species. The method uses water-based protein extraction, chip-based microfluidic electrophoresis (Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer) for the analysis of high abundance fish muscle proteins, and a novel data analysis method for species-specific protein pattern recognition. The method's performance in distinguishing commercially important fish from commonly reported substitutions was evaluated using sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy determinations with all three performance measures at >98% for common substitutions. This study demonstrates that uncooked seafood products of commercially important species of catfish, snapper, and grouper can be rapidly distinguished from commonly substituted species with a high level of confidence. A tiered testing approach to seafood species verification by sequentially applying a rapid screening method and DNA testing is proposed to more effectively ensure accurate product labeling.
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