Final script

[Matt - Slide 1 catch fish]
At a lake, you would except to be able to do recreational lake activities like swimming, fishing, boating, camping, or picnicking. [Slide 2 - fish dinner]. There is nothing like catching a nice big fish, then go home and have a nice big fish dinner. [Slide 3 - OL] But here at Onondaga Lake, you can not do all these normal recreational lake activities like fishing because of years of pollution. The Industrial Age has left the lake unusable for many recreation activities.

[Slide 4 - OL with smoke stack]
From 1917 to 1970, many company such as the Solvay Process Company, Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant, Honeywell International Inc, AlliedSignal, and many others contributed to the lakes outstanding pollution levels. The waste disposal caused abnormal bacterial levels along with many pollutants plaguing the waters. In the 1940’s, Onondaga Lake was declared unsafe to swim and in 1970’s there was a ban on fishing.

[Slide 5 - fish contaminant diagram by Rachael]
As a result of the Industrial Age, most of the area around the lake is polluted in some way. In the surface water there is PCBs, mercury, chromium, lead, benzene, pesticides, and more. In the ground water there is hexochlorobenzene, benezen, PBCs, phenol, toluene, and many more. In the sediment there is benzene, aroclor, mercury, lead, and hexachlorobenzene. In the soil there is lead, mercury, and PCBs. And the fish are rich in mercury.

[Justine Slide 6 - types of fish]
There are many species of fish in Onondaga lake including: Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, White Perch, Yellow Perch, Blue Gill and many more. In 1986, the fishing policy was changed to catch and release (1). People are not allowed to take the fish home to eat because of the high concentration of mercury in the fish. When small fish eat mercury in their food, it goes into their tissue. When the larger fish eat these smaller fish or other organisms, most of the mercury from the small fish is then stored in the bodies of these larger fish (2).

[Slide 7 - mercury effects on body]
Mercury can have a very negative effect on the body. It is one of the most poisonous substances on earth. Factories, such as Honeywell and AlliedSignal, that were located on the shores of Onondaga Lake contributed to the 165,000 pounds of mercury that entered the lake from 1946 to 1970. People who eat fish with large amounts of mercury develop permanent kidney, nervous system, and brain damage. Brain nervous system damage symptoms may include personality changes like irritability or nervousness, changes in vision, tremors, deafness, uncontrollable muscle twitching, difficulties with memory, and loss of sensation. Kidney damage symptoms may include nausea, diarrhea, and severe ulcers (2).

[Rachael Slide 8 - guy with light bulb]
But we have come up with a solution for this unfortunate situation of catch and release of mercury filled fish. [Slide 9 - stand] It is called the Onondaga Lake Fish Trade In. We rent out pole, bait, and holding bucket to keep the fish from dieing. But, most importantly, you can trade in your mercury filled, practically poisonous fish for a healthy, edible fish of equal size. [Slide 10- sketch of stand] In the back of the stand, we will have a pool of healthy, mercury free fish. After trading fishes, we will put the Onondaga Lake fish back into the lake so we are still following the catch and release policy.

[Slide 11 - wrapping paper]
The fish will be wrapped in this paper with our logo on it. The logo is the Mad Hatter at a tea party with fish h'ors d'oeuvres. The slogan is “Our Fish Wont Make You Mad”. For those who don’t know the story behind the Mad Hatter this may seem a bit vague but here is the story: [Slide 12 - paper close up] During the 19th century, felt hats were made with a mercury solution. The hat makers, or hatters as they were called, got mercury poisoning. As we have discussed, mercury attacks the nervous system causing the hatters symptoms like uncontrollable muscle twitching and difficulties talking and thinking. They hatter seemed to have gone mad (3). This is where the Mad Hatter character comes from.

So if you were to eat the fish in Onondaga Lake you would show similar symptoms and seemed to have gone mad. So our slogan, “Our Fish Wont Make You Mad” incorporates the fact that eating the fish would make you show symptoms similar to madness just as the mad hatters did in the 19th century. All of this madness is due to mercury.

So in the end we hope that our project would let the people of Syracuse more fully enjoy what the lake has to offer. We also are pointing out the fact that it is ridiculous that a lake cannot be used for recreational activities that are available at most other lakes. We want to bring more awareness and attention to the excessive pollution problem.

(1) http://translation.turbulence.org/Works/superfund/index.php?offset=77
(2) http://atsdr.cdc.gov/to profiles/tp46-cl-b.pdf
(3) http://www.seagrant.uconn.edu/HATTER.HTML
Mad Hatter Picture from http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/pictures/mad-hatter-pictures.html