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the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in California, where reproduction problems in birds have been documented (Ohlendorf and others, 1986). Selenium concentrations in aquatic plants from Sweitzer Lake ranged from 7.9 to 12.8 ~g/g dry weight (table 14), and there was a selenium concentration of 35.3 ~g/g dry weight in a composite plankton sample (table 23). Although these selenium concentrations were less than selenium concentrations for . similar biota at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge (Ohlendorf and others, 1986), the selenium in the food chain at Sweitzer Lake may be of concern. Lemly and Smith (1987) stated that 3 to 5 ~g/g dry weight of selenium in food may cause reproductive failure or mortality in fish and waterfowl by food- chain bioconcentration (also discussed in Cumbie and Van Horn, 1978; Heinz and others, 1987; Lemly, 1987). Coughlan and Velte (1989) report that consumption by striped bass of red shiners that had 38 ~g/g dry weight of selenium resulted in elevated selenium concentrations in muscle, modified behavior, decreased physiological condition, histological damage to the liver and kidney, and death of all fish within 78 days. 80 3 70 3 NUMBER OF SAMPLES '" W D- 60 Vl ::;:f- <l:I "'C) 50 <:J- OW "'~ u> 40 -", ::;:0 ~::;: .<l: 30 ::;:'" ~C) z 20 W ...J W Vl 10 0 UVER KIDNEY STOMACH MUSCLE EGGS WHOLE BODY MATRIX Figure l7.--Mean concentrations of selenium in channel catfish samples from Sweitzer Lake (site 7). A sign is posted at Sweitzer Lake warning anglers not to eat fish caught from the lake. The lake supports considerable fishing use, and many anglers keep their catch. The average selenium concentration of the five catfish 54