Spatiotemporal variation in fish mercury contamination: Comparing approaches for crafting consumption advisories and assessing impairment.

Mercury in fish is a serious human health concern. Mercury is a widespread contaminant that exceeds health effect thresholds in many fish species and waterbodies. The objectives were to determine the spatiotemporal variation of mercury in fish tissue for several fish species across thousands of lakes and to assess the potential use of fish length standardization and statistical models to improve fish consumption guidelines and impairments determinations in lake-rich areas.