Johnson et al. : Fecundity and egg weight in Pleuronectes vetulus 
233 
LEGEND 
Sediment PCB’s (ng/g) 
Sediment AH’s (ng/g) 
jail 
500 ' 
80,000 
•10000 
Sediment PCB’s 
ro 
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O 
(V.'V' TTTJ 
Sediment AH’s 
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Eagle Harbor 
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500 
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Port Susan 
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500 
250 
fe’i 
10000 
5000 I 
> 
Sinclair Inlet 
ST 
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y }i 5 
j- Tacoma 
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Olympia 
X r 
500 
250 
■ A 
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10000 
5000 
Duwamish Waterway 
Figure 1 
Chart of Puget Sound, showing locations of sampling sites and concentrations of aromatic 
hydrocarbons (AH’s) (ng/g dry weight) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s) (ng/g dry weight) in 
sediments collected from these areas. Data from Malins et al. ( 1984, 1985); contaminant levels in 
the same range have been observed in more recent samplings (see Footnote 1 in the main text). 
patterns of egg production in Puget Sound English 
sole and to examine how these patterns vary in rela- 
tionship to collection site, chemical contaminant ex- 
posure, and nutritional status. 
Materials and methods 
Collection of samples 
Vitellogenic female English sole (greater than 250 
mm total length [TL]) were collected by otter trawl 
from Eagle Harbor, Sinclair Inlet, Port Susan, and 
the Duwamish Waterway in Puget Sound, Washing- 
ton (Fig. 1 ). Sampling was conducted during the win- 
ters of 1986-87 and 1989-90 in mid-December and 
from mid to late January, to coincide with the period 
in which vitellogenesis normally occurs in this spe- 
cies, before substantial migration to spawning areas 
has taken place (Johnson et al., 1991). Aside from a 
relatively brief spawning migration, sole are relatively 
territorial and reside at these sites throughout the year 
(Day, 1976). It should be noted that because these ani- 
mals were not actively spawning, fecundity determi- 
