FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72. NO. 1 



Table 2. — Parts per million cadmium and lead on a wet 

 weight basis in kidney and liver of fur seals taken off 

 Washington, 1971.' 



' Arsenic was not found obove the limit of detection of 0.2 

 ppm (mg/kg) in either kidney or liver in any of the samples. 



male, and 0.9-4.6 ppm in eight females. Cad- 

 mium in kidney ranged from 0.1 ppm in a fetus 

 (6.2 ppm in the mother), to 1.7 ppm in a young 

 male, and 0.2-15.6 ppm in eight females. 



Lid liners from new glass bottles had 1.1 i)pm 

 mercury and 0.4 ppm arsenic. Lead and cad- 

 mium were not detected. The tissues and lid 

 liners were never in direct contact, but some 

 transfer of mercury from the lid liners and 

 glass bottles could have occurred. However, 

 the maximum contribution from the lid liners 

 would have been 0.004 ppm mercury, so the data 

 were not adjusted. 



Heavy Metal — Age Comparisons 

 in Fur Seals 



Regression equations were computed for 

 samples from fur seals collected in 1970 and 

 1971 to determine if mercury in liver, muscle, 

 and kidney and if lead and cadmium in liver 

 and kidney were correlated with age. Signifi- 

 cant correlations for mercury have been reported 

 for fur seal liver (Anas, 1970a) and whole 

 fishes (Bache, Gutenmann, and Lisk, 1971). 

 Untransformed data were used here because 

 log transformations did not significantly 

 improve the correlations. Fetuses and pups were 

 not included in the calculations. Only liver 

 tissues were collected both in 1970 and 1971. 

 The correlation coefficients in the two years for 

 mercury in liver were common (P>0.05), so the 

 dataware pooled. Mercury in liver had a signi- 

 ficant positive correlation with age (P< 0.001, 

 r — -1-0.84). The data indicate that mercury 

 accumulates in liver. Mercury in muscle and 



kidney did not correlate with age (P>0.05, r = 

 -h 0.05 and +0.51, respectively). Also, lead and 

 cadmium in liver and kidney did not correlate 

 with age (P>0.05. r = +0.19 and -0.45 for 

 lead and r — +0.17 and + 0.04 for cadmium in 

 liver and kidney, respectively). Sample sizes 

 were 67 for mercury in liver, 39 for mercury in 

 muscle, and 9 for cadmium and lead in liver and 

 kidney. 



Mercury in Harbor Seal Livers 



Harbor seals are nonmigratory, so levels of 

 contaminants in this species are useful for 

 locating geographical concentrations of con- 

 taminants, provided that the food species do not 

 migrate long distances. Studies suggest that 

 the principal food species of harbor seals do not 

 migrate far (Scheffer and Sperry, 1931; 

 Spalding, 1964; Kenyon, 1965). The highest 

 levels of mercury were found in harbor seals from 

 San Miguel Island (Table 3). One harbor seal 

 from San Miguel Island had 700 ppm mercury 

 in the liver. The amount of mercury in this 

 sample is so much higher than the amounts 

 found in the other seals that the possibility 

 of contamination of the sample should be 

 considered. However, as far as is known, this 

 sample was treated no differently than the 

 other samples. The sample size is small and the 

 ages are not known, but the concentrations of 



Table 3. — Parts per million mercury on a wet weight 

 basis in liver of harbor seals taken in the eastern Pacific 

 Ocean, 1970-71. 



136 



