FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72. NO. 2 



in Santa Monica Bay in 1970, 8:87:6, and by a 

 bottom sediment sample taken near the sewer out- 

 fall in 1971, 6:82: 12. Samples of sewer water taken 

 in 1970 that derived their DDT content from sewer 

 sediments had ratios of 14:38:48 (Redner and 

 Payne, 1971). 



A few specimens of another myctophid, 

 Triphoturus mexicanus, also showed a change in 

 CHC ratios with time. Twenty-one specimens 

 taken between 1950 and 1959 contained an aver- 

 age of 699'f DDT, 99f DDD, and 22*7^ DDE, while 12 

 specimens taken between 1961 and 1970 con- 

 tained 23% DDT, 15%DDD, and 62% DDE. These 

 fish were taken between Los Angeles and south- 

 ern Baja California (lat 26°20'N). This species has 

 a more southern distribution than Stenobrachius 

 leucopsarus, and therefore the population was less 

 influenced by the sewer discharge. 



One might expect that DDE would be more 

 abundant in samples taken farther from the sewer 

 outfall, indicating older deposits, but this is not 

 the case. The proportions are very similar in all 

 samples, even those taken outside of the influence 

 of the sewer. For the fish samples taken in 1969-70 

 for the survey, the percentages are given in Table 

 3. 



Each sample contained several fish of the same 

 species, and only the livers were tested. Where the 



Table 3.— Distribution of p.p'DDE, p.p'DDD, and p.p'DDT in 

 fish samples by area taken, 1969-70. 



pesticide levels were very high, the proportions 

 were remarkably similar among samples. For the 

 eight Santa Monica Bay samples, the DDE ranged 

 from 85.2 to 87.7%, DDD from 5.1 to 6.6%, and 

 DDT from 5.7 to 9.1%. 



The high proportions of DDE relative to DDT 

 and DDD seem to be typical of fishes, porpoises, 

 and crustaceans in the ocean off southern Califor- 

 nia (Tables 4 and 5). In six adult pelicans taken on 

 Anacapa Island in 1969 (Keith et al., 1970), DDE 

 made up 99% of the total DDT found in the fat, and 

 93% in eggs taken at the same time. Lament, 

 Bagley, and Reichel (1970) tested 10 pelican eggs 

 from the same place and year and found that DDE 

 constituted 96% of the total. 



Stout (1968) gives data for 17 samples repre- 

 senting seven species of marine fishes taken off 

 Washington and Oregon. In these, DDE averaged 



Table 4. — Percent distribution of total DDT and ratio of DDD to DDT in rockfishes and 

 sablefish from Santa Monica Bay. Major dumping of DDT wastes into sewer system stopped in 

 April 1970. Samples of May 1970 and August 1971 are averages of five separate samples each 

 for fat, liver, and flesh. In each of these 15 samples the ratio of DDE to DDT was greater than 

 one. 



288 



