10
Fish Concentrations
The mullet stomach contents consisted of homogenized carbonate
material and microbenthos while the stomach contents of the snapper
contained fish parts, crustacea and some unidentified organic material.
Table 2 shows a large difference between the wet/dry ratio of the stomach
contents from the two fish.
The ingested food contents of these fishes are
from very different components of the lagoon environmert.
This observation
supports the description of the different feeding habits of the two species
(Hi 60).
Th e
2394-240.
Pu concentration associated with the mullet stomach
contents was 5.0 pCi/kg dry weight.
This concentration is very close to
the value of the average lagoon sediment concentration (6.2 + 1.3 pCi/kg)
The average
238
Pu/
2394240,
u ratio in the surface sediment (0.032 + 0.008)
and stomach contents (0.020 + 0.005) are also in good agreement.
The
wet/dry and ash/dry weight ratios of the stomach contents and sediment were
identical.
The similarity in plutonium concentrations, isotopic ratio and
weight ratios indicate that the stomach contents of the mullet consists
largely of benthic sedimentary material.
The stomach content of the
snapper, on the other hand, was found to contain a much lower
concentrations of plutonium, more typical of the levels associated with the
flesh of marine organisms.
95
Zr was detected in the viscera and stomach content samples of the
mullet collected on 21 October 1976,
The radionuclide was introduced to
the aquatic environment sometime after 26 September 1976.
Generally low
9575 concentration factors for marine fish species are measured in