| Summary: | Blubber and muscle tissue samples were collected from different age‐class Weddell Seals ( Leptonychotes weddellii ) near McMurdo Sound, Antarctica in 2006. Tissue samples were analyzed for semi‐volatile organic compounds (SOCs) including current and historic‐use organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). SOCs were extracted from tissue samples utilizing pressurized liquid extraction with an in‐cell silica gel clean‐up and gel permeation chromatography. Extracts were analyzed using gas chromatographic mass spectrometry with electron capture negative ionization using isotope dilution and selective ion monitoring. Average triplicate recoveries using 1.5 g of whale blubber tissue and 0.25g muscle tissue was 86% ± 11%. Out of the 72 contaminants targeted in Weddell seal tissues, 10 individual SOCs were recovered in the L. dorsi whereas 22 were recovered from blubber. The most commonly recovered SOCs from all samples were cis‐chlordane, trans‐nonachlor, cis‐nonachlor, DDTs, DDEs, PCBs, and dieldrin. PBDE 47 also was recovered from the blubber of adults. DDE and DDT made up the majority of the SOCs recovered in both skeletal muscle and blubber; adult female DDT‐DDE concentrations > juveniles > adult males > pups (ANOVA, P < 0.05). DDT:DDE from adult Weddell seals reveal similar trends to Arctic species.
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