Injury to Rockfish in Prince William Sound:Tissue Analysis Results (1989-1992)

Demersal rockfish tissues were collected at four sites (two oiled and two unoiled) in Prince William Sound in both 1990 and 1991 and at four sites (two oiled and two unoiled) along the outer Kenai Peninsula in 1990. Analysis of hydrocarbon data showed that there was a significantly higher incidence of hydrocarbons in the bile of rockfish from oiled areas than unoiled areas in 1989 (P=0.005), however there were no significant differences in 1990 (P=0.933) or 1991 (P=0.844). In 1990, nine histopathologic lesions were scored by pathologists, and in 1991, 26 different lesions were scored, indicating there were significant differences between unoiled and oiled sites in two of the nine lesion scores, liver lipidosis (P=0.0086) and liver glycogen depletion (P=0.0005) in 1990; and two of the 26 lesion scores, liver lipidosis (P=0.0006) and kidney lymphocytes (P=0.0005) in 1991. No differences in lesion scores were seen between sites on the outer Kenai Peninsula in 1990. After histopathologic examination, the pathologists accurately "predicted" which sites were oiled based on qualitative analysis of semiquantitative lesion scores for all four sites in Prince William Sound. Subsequent principal component analysis indicated differences in oiled and unoiled sites in both 1990 and 1991. Differences were more definitively indicated in 1991 than in 1990 using this analysis.