(all sedinent concentrations are expressed on a dry weight basis) from 
urbanized and/or industrialized sites — Canmencement Bay, Elliott Bay, 
Eagle Harbor, Mukilteo, and Everett Harbor — to be at least 150 times 
higher than the mean concentration in sediments from the nonurban embay- 
ments — Case Inlet and Port Madison (Malins et al, 1984). Within these 
urban areas, the values of AHs varied considerably with respect to indi¬ 
vidual stations (e.g., 150 to 63,000 ppb in Elliott Bay) (Figure 2). So 
far, the highest concentrations of summed AHs (120,000 ng/g) were detected 
in sediments frcm Eagle Harbor; moreover, over 200 nitrogen containing 
aromatic compounds vere also present in these sediments (Malins et al. 
1985a, Krone et al. 1987). 
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and a variety of chlorinated butadienes 
(CBDs) v^re found in virtually every sediment sample from Puget Sound 
(Malins et al. 1984). Concentrations of PCBs were usually much higher in 
sediments from most of the sites in Elliott and Commencement Bays corrpared 
to those in sediments from sites in non-urban areas (Figure 4). The 
concentrations of CBDs were substantially higher in Conmencement Bay 
(Figure 3B). 
Arsenic concentrations were also consistently higher in the major 
urban areas (Commencement and Elliott Bays) than in the nonurban areas, 
whereas the mean concentrations of cadmium were generally similar in all 
areas. 
We also found that food organisms in the stomachs of the English 
sole ( Parophrys vetulus ) from selected areas, such as Eagle Harbor (Malins 
et al. 1985a) and near Mukilteo (Malins et al. 1985b), contained 
substantially higher concentrations of AHs than comparable organisms from 
reference sites. For example, the sums of the concentrations of AHs in 
two composites of food organisms (from five fish each) from Eagle Harbor 
were 50,000 and 84,000 ng/g, respectively. The concentrations of 
individual AHs in a composite of benthic food organisms (frcm 
six fish) frcm President Point did not exceed 100 ng/g. These findings 
suggest that consumption of sediment-dv^lling organisms provides an 
important route of uptake of enviorrmental contaminants. 
Metabolically resistant organic chemicals, such as PCBs, were found in the 
muscle tissues of English sole frcm many Puget Sound sites. In a recently 
completed study of PCB concentrations in the muscle tissue of English sole, 
we found that highest concentrations (based on analyses of tissue ccmpo- 
sites of five fish each) in sole from the Duwamish Waterway (6,900 ng/g) 
and the Hylebos waterway (2,800 ng/g) (Malins et al., 1986) (Figure 5). 
English sole from the Case Inlet reference site had muscle concentrations 
of 400 ng/g. Complimentary laboratory studies suggest that uptake of 
PCBs from bottom sediments is an important route of bioaccumulation of 
these chanicals by English sole. English sole held for several weeks in 
aquaria containing sedinent from the Duwamish Waterway bioaccumulated 
significant levels of PCBs in liver and muscle tissue (Stein et al. 1987). 
In contrast to PCBs, concentrations of the more metabolically labile organic 
85 
