The mussel bed and its multitude of inhabitants form a life community typical of our intertidal, rocky, open-coast areas. These animals are essentially immobile, are conveniently available at low tide, and have been well defined in their consumer order. Certain main members from this community were chosen with the intention that they would represent an index of heavy metal pollution for a given area under different seasonal and other variable conditions. Samples for monitoring were collected from two different sites. The first site was immediately outside the entrance to San Francisco Bay and located between Seal Rocks and Phelan Beach State Parks. This location was chosen to represent a water mass of supposed maximum pollution. The Golden Gate can be assumed to be the funnel through which flows all waters from the San Joaquin and Sacramento River drainages and from the San Francisco Bay area itself. The second site, immediately north of the Dillon Beach township, located at the juncture of Bodega and Tomales Bays, was chosen since it might represent a water mass of minimum pollution. This area is not immediately near any large urban influence, industrial activity or subject to heavy auto traffic. Therefore, at the outset it was hoped that the “immobile” consumer order within the mussel bed community would reflect the relative pollution of two supposedly different water masses.

The uptake, distribution and depuration of a water soluble, mono-aromatic hydrocarbon contained in petroleum and refined products was studied in two species of marine fish, Nature northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax) and juvenile striped bass (Horone saxatilis) were exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of 14c benzene for 48 hours. Residues in tissues exhibiting a high lipid content (non-metabolic pathway) or representing apparent major metabolic sites were measured during the exposure and afterwards when the fish were transferred to clean seawater. Fish exhibited a rapid uptake over a wide range of benzene concentrations in the water column. Accumulation in anchovy was considerably greater than in striped bass. Results indicate that the pathway of hydrocarbons through the liver, gall bladder, intestines and colon is a major depuration route. Residues were depurated rapidly after cessation of exposure; in striped bass tissues. most residues were undetectable by seven days,