TOXIC CHEMICALS IN FISH: 
REPRODUCTION 
EFFECTS ON THEIR HEALTH AND 
McCain, Sin—Lam Chan, Usha Varanasi 
Margaret M. Krahn, and Donald W. Brown 
Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center 
Seattle, Washington 
Introduction 
A number of studies conducted during the past decade in Puget Sound have 
demonstrated the presence of chemically contaminated sediments and bottcm- 
fish particularly in certain urban/industrial embayments. A variety of 
pathological conditions have been found in bottomfish species from several 
of the most contaminated sites. These findings have served as useful 
indicators of environmental degradation in several parts of Puget Sound 
(Malins et al. 1984, Malins et al. 1985a,b). 
Certain types of pathological conditions have been most useful in identi¬ 
fying pollution-associated perturbations (Malins et al. 1984, Malins et al. 
1985a&b). Many of the lesions have a suspected chemical etiology because 
they are morphologically similar to lesions observed in laboratory rodents 
and fish exposed to toxic and/or carcinogenic chemicals. 
This paper will briefly outline the distribution of environmental conta¬ 
mination in bottom sediments and fish from Puget Sound (Figure 1) and 
discuss the possible inpacts of these contaminants on the health and 
reproduction of fish. Most of the infonnation presented in this summary 
is the result of studies conducted by scientists of the Environmental 
Conservation Division of the Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center in 
Seattle. 
Chemical Contamination 
A wide variety of anthropogenic chemicals, some in high concentrations, 
have been found in sediments from a number of sites in Puget Sound. For 
example, in studies oonducted in Commencement Bay, we detected more than 
900 individual organic compounds — including over 500 AHs, hundreds of 
chlorinated hydrocarbons, as well as various compounds containing nitrogen, 
oxygen, sulfur and bromine (Malins et al. 1982). There are indications 
that many other chemicals are present [especially in the Everett Harbor 
(Malins et al. 1983)]; however, their numbers and identities have not been 
elucidated because of the limitations of the analytical technic^s. We 
also found mean concentrations of aromatic hydrocarbons (AHs) in sediment 
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