36 



Fishery Bulletin 88(1), 1990 



until 3 days after the majority (89%) of the hatch was 

 complete, ample time for most sequestered hydrocar- 

 bons to be depurated (Carls and Rice 1988). Some 

 abnormal larvae (12% at 2.7 ppm) survived on their 

 yolksac energy reserves to the end of the experiment 

 (21 days after hatch), suggesting that depletion of en- 

 dogenous energy was not responsible for mortalities 

 occurring soon after hatch. 



Oil accidently spilled in the marine environment rare- 

 ly reaches concentrations (0.4-2.3 ppm) necessary to 

 cause the effects observed in this study. However, the 

 probability of oil spills is greater in nearshore waters, 

 and this oil tends to concentrate in surface layers where 

 walleye pollock eggs occur. For example, in the Bering 

 Sea pollock eggs are spawned at depth and rise to the 

 pelagic zone (Incze et al. 1984). Pollock eggs were most 

 abundant in the upper 5-10 m, but abundance of older 

 eggs (stage IV-VI) peaked about 20 m (Nishiyama et al. 

 1986, Serobaba 1974). 



Large, single-event, nearshore oil spills have released 

 sufficient quantities of hydrocarbons to affect plank- 

 tonic fish eggs. For example, after the Amoco Cadiz 

 spill, water entering the Aber Wrac'h estuary con- 

 tained more than 1 ppm hydrocarbons and 0.5 ppm 

 throughout the estuary (Calder and Boehm 1981). After 

 the Ar-go Merchant grounded on Nantucket Shoals, 

 about one-half the chorions of cod Gadus rnorhua and 

 pollock Pollachius virens eggs were contaminated with 

 oil droplets or tar, and approximately 20-46% of the 

 eggs were dead or moribund, compared with a 4% 

 control mortality (laboratory-spawned cod) (Longwell 

 1977). 



In conclusion, exposure of pelagic marine walleye 

 pollock eggs to WSF during development can cause em- 

 bryos to develop abnormalities, and reduces size. 

 Although they generally survive and hatch, embryos 

 exposed to WSF produce abnormal larvae that have 

 poor survival potential. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank Jeff Short for sample analysis by gas chroma- 

 tography. 



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