Organochlorine Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congeners in Commercial Fish from the Great Lakes

Abstract

Fillets from 11 species of commercial fish from the Great Lakes were analyzed for residues of 39 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and 24 other organochlorine compounds. Eel and trout contained the highest amount of PCB (753 and 633 ppb wet weight, respectively) and other organochlorines (607 and 1404 ppb, respectively); perch and carp contained the lowest residues. The pentaand hexachlorinated PCBs were the major congeners in all species except whitefish, in which the tetrachlorinated congeners predominated. Toxaphene was the most abundant organochlorine pesticide in trout; p,p′ -DDE was the major component of this class in eel. Residue concentrations in commercial carp were compared with residues present in carp from a fishery closed to commercial operation. Although both PCB and organochlorine pesticide levels in carp were among the lowest for all commercial fish samples, levels from the contaminated area were among the highest.

Organochlorines in Lake Superior's Food Web

“…Toxaphene concentrations were 6.2 ( 3.6 (mean ( 1 standard deviation) times higher than those of total PCBs. Toxaphene levels in Lake Superior fish measured here in 1994 are comparable to those previously measured in by Newsome et al (18), where wet weight concentrations ranged from 458 ng/g in herring up to 936 ng/g in lake trout. However, toxaphene concentrations in Lake Superior lake trout reported recently by Glassmeyer et al (19) are considerably higher than ours (4900 ( 1400 ng/g versus 390 ( 110 ng/g).…”

Isomer-Specific Determination and Toxic Evaluation of Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Polychlorinated/brominated Dibenzo-p-Dioxins and Dibenzofurans, Polybrominated Biphenyl Ethers, and Extractable Organic Halogen in Carp from the Buffalo River, New York

“…bond) were also age-dependent. Generally, concentrations ofPCBsandDDTwere similar or higher than those reported for various freshwater fish from the Great Lakes during the late 1980s and the early 1990s (17)(18)(19)(20). Great concentrations of total PCBs and the presence of a considerable proportion of lower chlorinated members in Buffalo River carp suggest the existence of recent PCB inputs.…”

Toxaphene in Great Lakes Fish: A Temporal, Spatial, and Trophic Study

“…Like PCBs and other heavily used organochlorines, toxaphene is ubiquitous in the environment, and it has been found in samples from such diverse areas as the Great Lakes region (11)(12)(13)(14), the North Sea (15), Siberia (16), and the Nile River (17). The U.S. EPA canceled the registrations for most of toxaphene's uses in 1982, but allowed the existing stocks to be used in limited circumstances until 1986 (18).…”