Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides and mercury in coastal young-of-the-year finfish, South Carolina and Georgia--1972-74

Abstract

Pesticides and heavy metals were monitored in fish collected from 11 estuaries representing all the Atlantic drainage basins in Georgia and South Carolina. Part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Estuarine Monitoring Program, the semianual survey of young-of-the-year fishes, was conducted from 1972 to 1974. Data are intended to provide an initial base line for residue levels in the fish studied in these waters. Dieldrin was found in 2 percent of the samples, DDT and metabolites were in 33 percent, polychlorinated biphenyls were in 4 percent, and mercury was in 47 percent. Noticeably absent were any measurable residues of toxaphene even though there is a toxaphene manufacturing plant in Brunswick, Ga.