A QUANTITATIVE HEALTH ASSESSMENT INDEX FOR RAPID EVALUATION OF FISH CONDITION IN THE FIELD

The health assessment index (HAI) is an extension and refinement of a previously published field necropsy system. The HAI is a quantitative index that allows statistical comparisons of fish health among data se ts. Index variables are assigned numerical values based on the degree of severity or damage incurred by an organ or tissue from environmenta l stressors. This approach has been used to evaluate the general healt h status of fish populations in a wide range of reservoir types in the Tennessee River basin (North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky), in Hartwell Reservoir (Georgia, South Carolina) that is contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls, and in the Pigeon River (Tennessee, Nort h Carolina) that receives effluents from a bleached kraft mill. The ab ility of the HAI to accurately characterize the health of fish in thes e systems was evaluated by comparing this index to other types of fish health measures (contaminant, bioindicator, and reproductive analysis ) made at the same time as the HAI. In all cases, the HAI demonstrated the same pattern of fish health status between sites as did each of t he other more sophisticated health assessment methods. The HAI has pro ven to be a simple and inexpensive means of rapidly assessing general fish health in field situations.