Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congener concentrations in seabirds found dead in mortality incidents around the British coast.

Abstract

Livers from 121 birds killed in mortality incidents in U.K. coastal waters between 1991 and 1996 were analyzed for 16 PCB congeners (IUPAC numbers 8, 18, 28, 31, 52, 77, 101, 118, 126, 128, 138, 149, 153, 169, 170, and 180). Species analyzed were guillemot (Uria aalge), shag (Phalacrocorax arisotelis), kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), puffin (Fratercula arctica), razorbill (Alca torda), fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), gannet (Sula bassana), and herring gull (Larus argentatus). This is the first report of PCBs in U.K. seabird tissues to be presented since 1983. Mean concentrations of total PCBs ranged from 0.47 to 15.8 mg/kg WW, similar to concentrations reported for North Sea birds during the 1970s and 1980s and lower than those reported for the same species in the Irish Sea during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The congeners generally present in the highest concentrations were (in decreasing order) 153, 138, 180, 118, and 170. Despite the birds having similar diets, both inter- and intraspecies differences in PCB congener profile were found. In guillemots from several sites on the east coast, the dominant congener was 138, compared to guillemots from the south coast, which had the more typical congener pattern found in seabirds. Some of the differences in total PCB values could be due to different causes of death, with a subsequent effect on body lipid levels.