Fróðskaparrit - 31.12.2000, Side 155

KANNINGAR AV KYKSILVRI OG ORGANOKLORIDUM
1 EINSTØKUM HAVSUGDJORUM IFØROYUM
159
est concentration of mercury in the Leynar
pod, 2.99 mg/kg muscle, occurs in a female
of 404 cm body length.
The assumption, however, that length is
proportional to age is a simplification that
does not take into account the fact that
growth is highly dependent on factors like
availability of food in the main growth pe-
riods, and this means that the longest indi-
vidual need not be the oldest. Especially
among females the body length vs. age
curve is very flat at ages 15 years and older
(Bloch et al., 1993) and a female of very
modest body length may in fact be among
the oldest. A more precise method of de-
termining the age is by reading the whale
teeth (Lockyer, 1993), but this was not done
in the present study.
Plotting mercury concentrations in both
male and female white-sided dolphins to-
gether (Fig. 2) reveals a peak at the upper
border of attainable female body length.
As in the Leynar pod of pilot whales, the
maximum concentration of mercury that
was measured in the group of white-sided
dolphins was found in a female and was
equal to 1.47 mg/kg muscle. The highest
mercury concentration measured was 5.94
mg/kg muscle and this was found in the
largest male (560 cm body length) in the
Tórshavn pod of pilot whales. Earlier re-
sults (Simmonds et al., 1994; HS, unpuh-
Table 14. The resultsfor toxaphene parlars in pilot whale blubber in the two pods are given in pg/kg lipid. The
results are shown with mean and standard deviation values (bold) and minimum and maximum values for adult
and juvenile, females and males.
Talva 14. Úrslitini av toxaphenparlarum í grindahvali eru víst í pg/kg av feitti. Úrslitini eru víst sum miðalvirði
við standardfrávikum (við feitari skrift), eins og lægsta og hægsta virði fyri teir fýra undirbólkamar av hon- og
hannhvølum, hvølpum og vaksnum djórum, er víst.
Sandavágur 26 Aug 1997 Parlar no. 26 (T2) Parlar no. 50 (T12) Parlar no. 62 (T20) Tórshavn 24 Sep. 1997 Parlar no. 26 ( T2 ) Parlar no. 50 (T12) Parlar no. 62 (T20)
juv. females 2981 3852 856 juv. females 2489 3937 742
std. dev 1453 1747 367 std. dev 1682 2342 354
N = 1283 1812 341 N = 734 1462 279
7 5354 6250 1381 6 4932 7305 1184
ad. females 637 1096 287 ad. females 537 935 259
std. dev 506 795 132 std. dev 613 916 212
N = 105 242 121 N = 96 196 71
16 1877 3323 567 31 3442 5158 1248
juv. males 1699 2661 552 juv. males 1592 2459 479
std. dev 901 1517 292 std. dev 700 1015 217
N = 109 243 101 N = 662 1098 315
19 4200 7323 1446 9 3070 4376 967
ad. males 2060 2774 562 ad. males 1628 2422 447
std. dev 605 880 187 std. dev 566 772 133
N = 981 1837 339 N = 797 1450 274
8 3049 4259 818 4 2067 3254 570