2025 Project Update
The WHP concluded an assessment of environmental contaminants in frequently harvested waterfowl in the Northeast Atlantic Flyway, recently published in Science of the Total Environment. Overall, our study suggested that Canada geese and wood ducks had lower contaminant levels than green-winged teal, black ducks, and mallards, although we did find PCBs and at least one OCP and PFAS in every bird collected. These data are being used by state health departments to update consumption advisories for hunters, if necessary. The study has garnered attention worldwide, with invitations to present the work both nationally and internationally at the inaugural Safe Game Meat Conference in Portugal.
Formerly of the WHP, first author David Dayan is currently pursuing his PhD at University of Minnesota under an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. The waterfowl project was funded by an Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Multistate Conservation Need Grant and coauthored by state biologists at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Pennsylvania Game Commission, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife, and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and others.
Project Background
Waterfowl hunters in the Atlantic Flyway harvest approximately 1.5 million ducks and more than 450,000 geese, annually, but an up-to-date evaluation of chemical contaminant loads has been lacking. Specifically, it has been three decades since a study has assessed the levels of legacy compounds (mercury) in the northeast portion of the Atlantic flyway, and contemporary compounds (PFAS) have not been assessed at all. The 200,000 waterfowl hunters in the Atlantic Flyway need better information about contaminant levels in wild waterfowl to make informed decisions about species consumption safety.
Our goal was to collect data for state wildlife agencies and health departments in a four-state area (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut) to update consumption advisories of wild-caught waterfowl. The data resulting from this study will also help us understand whether we should conduct further intensive surveillance to assess the impact of these contaminants on waterfowl populations, based explicitly on species, location, or compound.
We employed a statistically robust study design, utilizing tissue samples collected from five species of hunter-harvested ducks and geese (mallard, American black duck, Canada goose, American green-winged teal, and wood duck) across 13 ecoregions within the study area. Laboratory analysis determined the levels of six types of contaminants (PCBs, dioxins, furans, organochlorine pesticides, mercury, and PFAS) in wild waterfowl.
David B. Dayan, Brenda J. Hanley, Joshua Stiller, Wayne Richter, Ian D. Gregg, Nate R. Huck, Min T. Huang, Theodore C. Nichols, Henry M. Spliethoff, Jesse C. Becker, Lisa A. Murphy, Krysten L. Schuler, Environmental contaminants assessment for frequently harvested migratory waterfowl in the Northeast Atlantic flyway, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 963, 2025, 178474, ISSN 0048-9697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178474. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969725001081)
Find the published data here: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/items/295a3b52-57e8-48b5-9a76-4b9adcae54f0
