Table 3. Mean dry/wet weight ratios of fish tissues and organs. Tissue or organ - mean dry/wet wt ratio Fish common name Muscle Gizzard contents Bone Viscera Skin Liver Mullet Soke Crenimugil 0.23+0.01 0.60+0.07 0.62+0.05 0.352+0.07 0.53+0.05 0.2420.05 Neomyxus 0.23+0.01 0.58+0.03 0.58+0.03 0.41+0.06 0.51+0.03 0.2820.03 Surgeonfish 0.22+0.01 0.59+0.03 0.15+0.04 0.19+0.04 0.38+0.03 0.23+0.03 Goatfish 0.23+0.02 0.52+0.05 0.22+0.08 0.29+0.05 0.5020.05 0.25+0.03 Parrotfish 0.22+0.04 0.56+0.02 0.4420.09 0.412+0.04 0.43+0.03 0.4020.12 Ulua 0.24+0.01 0.65+0.02 0.19+0.03 0.26+0.03 0.4120.03 0.2720.03 Jack 0.24+0.01 0.62+0.05 0.25+0.03 0.25+0.02 0.38+0.05 0.25+0.04 Rainbow runner 0.26+0.01 0.62+0.03 0.22+0.02 0.32+0.05 0.48+0.02 0.33+0.07 Snapper 0.23+0.01 0.6120.05 0.1120.04 0.2320.01 0.44+0.07 0.27+0.03 Mackerel 0.24+0.01 0.54+0.03 0.26+0.02 0.25+0.02 0.35+0.02 0.26+0.03 Bonito 0.29+0.01 0.64+0.02 0.24+0.02 0.22+0.01 Q.32+0.02 fish. 0.56+0.01 As the program progressed, dose assessment became an important issue, so our attention focused on the analysis of edible muscle tissue from fish collected at different locations. Later our interests shifted to evaluate the concentrations in muscle among different species collected simultaneously from the same lagoon location. As a result, not every tissue and organ separated from the fish collected over the years were processed for radionuclide analysis. The mean dry/wet weight ratios for the tissues and organs most frequently analyzed are shown in Table 3. The dry/wet weight ratios of the stomach contents are of particular interest, because the differences noted attest to the different feeding habits of different species. The percentage that the organ or tissue was of the whole body fresh weight was also determined for several species. These values are given in Table 4. The ashed samples were transferred to aluminum or plastic containers, sealed, and analyzed by gamma spectrometry at LLNL using a variety of Ge(Li)diode detector systems. each sample. 9000562 Counting times were usually 1000 min or longer for A general purpose computer program, called GAMANAL,!9 was used