ORGANOCHLORINE CONTAMINANTS IN THE NORTHERN SHRIMP, PANDALUS-BOREALIS, COLLECTED FROM THE NORTHWEST ATLANTIC

Northern shrimp, Pandalus borealis, were sampled at two commercially i mportant locations in the Northwest Atlantic and soft tissues analysed for a variety of organochlorine pollutants. Sampling facilitated exam ination of the environmental and experimental variability to determine if and how location, season, sex or size affects results. Organochlor ine compounds including polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dib enzo-p-dioxins and dibenbenzofurans were non-detectable in muscle tiss ue (DLs = 0.01-0.5 ng/g and 0.1-0.5 pg/g, for the two groups, wet weig ht). Concentrations were highest in hepatopancreas, the tis;sue with a higher lipid content (mean = 28% vs 0.27% in muscle. The larger varia tion in the tissue distribution of contaminants was observed in April versus November females. Higher concentrations were observed in Novemb er eggs and in hepatopancreas of females sampled in April. The present study indicates the presence of a larger number of PCB and PCDF conge ners in the hepatopancreas of shrimp, a lower link in the Northwest At lantic food chain, as compared to livers of previously studied in fish species. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.