HALL ET AL.: MERCURY IN SABLEFISH 



5 10 15 



WElGHT(pounds) 



20 



Figure 4.-Relationship between heads-off eviscerated weight 

 and mercury concentration in muscle tissue of sablefish from 

 Washington. 



Q. 



a. 



1.60 



1 20- 



WEIGHT (kg) 

 4 6 



o 80 

 cr 



UJ 



2 



040 



5 10 15 



WEIGHT (pounds) 



20 



Figure 5.-Relationship between heads-off eviscerated weight 

 and mercury concentration in muscle tissue of sablefish from 

 Oregon. 



Effect of Age 



Since the female sablefish grows faster and 

 attains a larger size than the male (Clemens and 

 Wilby 1961), it would seem logical to assume that 

 the correlation between age and mercury level 

 might be better than that of weight and mercury 

 level. However, higher correlation coefficients 

 exist between weight and mercury than between 

 age and mercury in all areas except Oregon. 







WEIGHT (kg) 

 1 2 3 



1.00 



0.80 



'i 



Q. 



Q. 



^ 0.60 



O 



UJ 040 



0.20 



r=0811 



2 4 6 8 



WEIGHT (pounds) 



10 



Figure 6.- Relationship between heads-off eviscerated weight 

 and mercury concentration in muscle tissue of sablefish from 

 northern California. 







WEIGHT (kg) 

 2 4 6 



10 15 



WEIGHT (pounds) 



Figure 7.-Relationship between heads-off eviscerated weight 

 and mercury concentration in muscle tissue of sablefish from 

 central California. 



Relationships between age and mercury are 

 significant in all areas except Washington (Table 

 4). Age was not obtained on fish from the Bering 

 Sea-Kodiak Island area. 



795 



