PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL – Brain Lague, an eighth grade student at Surfside Middle School, has taken his interest in fish and applied it to a science fair project that he plans to enter in the 2011 Three Rivers Regional Science and Engineering Fair, an annual event.
His project involves the study of mercury levels in local fish, with his research taking him to the U.S. Geological Survey Florida Water Science Center in Tallahassee and a Florida A&M University laboratory.
Lague spent a day at the USGS lab in Tallahassee, with Lia Chasar helping Lague grind and dry all of the samples.
The FAMU lab offered to let Lague use their direct mercury analyzer to get mercury readings, with NOAA and USGS scientists helping him run statistical tests to analyze the mercury levels and compare them to recommended Food and Drug Administration levels.
While he didn’t have all of his readings back as of Thursday, Lague said that his preliminary findings showed that the fish he tested contained mercury amounts within the FDA’s recommended levels.
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