Development of a monitoring design for examining effects in wild fish associated with discharges from metal mines

As part of the amended Metal Mining Liquid Effluent Regulations under the Fisheries Act, mines will be required to develop and conduct Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM). EEM will be done to evaluate the effects of mine effluent on fish, fish habitat, and fish usability. Mines will be required to determine if there are changes in fish populations and/or in the usability of fish due to mine effluent. The EEM program has been designed with a tiered monitoring approach, with the first phase determining if an effect is present. Subsequent phases of EEM will focus on continued monitoring and determining the magnitude, geographic extent, and cause of effects (if any). Fish collected from the area exposed to mine effluent will be compared to fish from a reference area in order to determine if there is an effect, if the effect is mine related and the cause of the effect within the effluent. The fish population survey will examine the growth, reproduction, condition, and survival of one or more resident sentinel fish species. Fish usability will be determined based on the appearance of fish, their use, and the contaminant levels in fish tissue. It is recognized that some mines may not be able to implement a fish monitoring program as outlined, so it has been recommended that alternative methods, such as caged bivalves or on-site bioassays, may also be used. Frequency of monitoring will be dependent on the previous results of the fish and benthic invertebrate monitoring phases.