Butyltin compounds in sediment and fish from the Polish coast of the Baltic Sea

Concentrations of mono- (MBT), di- (DBT), and di-(TBT) butyltin compounds w ere measured in eggs, liver, and muscle of nine species of fish from four r egions of the Baltic Sea - the Firth of Vistula, the Gulf of Gdansk, Puck B ay, and the mouth of the Vistula River. The overall concentration ranges am ong all the fish sampled from the four sites were: <7 to 79 ng/g for,MBT, 6 to 1100 ng/g for DBT, 7 to 3600 ng/g for TBT, and 16 to 4800 ng/g for tota l BTs, on a wet wt basis. The highest concentration of total BTs was found in herring liver from the Firth of Vistula (4800 ng/g, wet wt) and in roach muscle from Puck Bay (3300 ng/g, wet wt), while the least concentration wa s found in burbot eggs and liver from the Vistula River (39 and 32 ng/g, we t wt, respectively). TBT was the major form of BTs present in most samples analyzed. Sediment samples collected from shipyards in the Gulf of Gdansk c ontained butyltin concentrations ranging from 1.2 to 46 mu g/g (dry wt) for MBT 2.0 to 42 mu g/g for DBT and 2.6 to 40 mu g/g for TBT. As with the fis h, the majority of the BTs in sediment were present as TBT, which suggested recent exposure of the aquatic environment of the region to TBT.