Poster Session PESTICIDES IN AN ESTUARY ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, CANADA

Prince Edward Island (PEI) has a history of fish kills that have been linked to the use of pesti-cides. In particular, pesticides, such as azinphos-methyl and chlorothalonil, have been linked to fish kills in recent years. Azinphos-methyl, also sold under the name of Guthion, is an insecticide used to control leaf-feeding insects, such as the potato beetle and the corn borer (Kamrin 1997). Chlorothalonil is a widely used fungicide that is used to control fungal diseases, such as late blight and downy mildew (Environment Canada 2004). In many cases, pesticide-laden runoff can be implicated in fish kills shortly after a pesticide application that is followed by a rainfall event. It is noteworthy to mention that while “fish kills ” may be the most obvious consequence of such pesticide problems, pesticides kill far more than fish, and the effects of contamination on an ecosystem as a whole should be considered. However, pesticide use is a mainstay of the agriculture industry and as such has become vital to the province of PEI as a whole. Potatoes alone are the largest agricultural commodity in the province, and typically have an annual farm value nearing 200 million dollars, representing over fifty percent of total farm cash receipts (PEI Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Forestry 2004). Overall, primary agriculture and related agri-food processing contributes eleven percent to the provin-cial Gross Domestic Product (PEI Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Forestry 2004)