| Abstract
| - Most of the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) body burdenaccumulated by coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) fromthe Laurentian Great Lakes is from their food. We useddiet information, PCB determinations in both coho salmonand their prey, and bioenergetics modeling to estimatethe efficiency with which Lake Michigan coho salmon retainPCBs from their food. Our estimate was the mostreliable estimate to date because (a) the coho salmonand prey fish sampled during our study were sampled inspring, summer, and fall from various locations throughoutthe lake, (b) detailed measurements were made on thePCB concentrations of both coho salmon and prey fish overwide ranges in fish size, and (c) coho salmon diet wasanalyzed in detail from April through November over a widerange of salmon size from numerous locations throughoutthe lake. We estimated that coho salmon from LakeMichigan retain 50% of the PCBs that are contained withintheir food.
|
