Transport pathways of polychlorinated biphenyls in Atlantic water

The distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the surface waters of the Atlantic shows concentration maxima in latitudes of high net precipitation and a minimum in the midlatitudes. Very low PCB concentrations are found in the South Atlantic. Since the nonvolatile inorganic radionuclide distribution in the Atlantic shows no dependence on precipitation patterns, codistillation with evaporating water must be a major factor in determining the distribution of PCBs...

Observations on the distribution of chlorinated hydrocarbons in Atlantic Ocean organisms

Industrial polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and the DDT family (t-DDT) were measured in several species of organisms collected from the open Atlantic Ocean between 66°N and 35°S latitude. All the organisms had higher concentrations of PCBs than t-DDT. Many trophic levels were represented in the collections, but the analytical data offer no support for food chain magnification among gilled organisms...