Levels of Organic and Inorganic Contaminants in Sediments and Fish Tissues and Prevalences of Pathological Disorders in Winter Flounder from Estuaries of the Northeast United States, 1984

Abstract

The Benthic Surveillance Project of NOAA's National Status and Trends Program seeks to determine prevalences of pathological disorders in demersal finfish and levels of organic and inorganic contaminants in sediments and fish tissues and evaluate possible correlations between biological effects and contamination. More than fifty of the Nation's estuaries and other coastal water bodies are under study. Preliminary findings from the first year of sampling in the Northeast region of the U.S. reveal that sediments from Raritan Bay, Boston Harbor and Salem Harbor contained substantially elevated concentrations of primarily sewage related organic and inorganic contaminants. PCB levels in livers of winter flounder exceeded <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">10 \mu</tex> g/g in specimens from Boston Harbor, but were <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3.2 \mu</tex> g/g or less elsewhere. Distributions of certain pathological conditions, such as the presence of giant cells in the tubular epithelium of winter flounder kidney, paralleled the distributions of sediment contaminants, whereas distributions of other pathological conditions, such as winter flounder pancreatitis, did not.