Elemental compositions of otoliths of young-of-the-year Atlantic croaker Minopogonias undulatus at stations along a pollution gradient in Galveston Bay, Texas, were compared with those of sediments and livers to establish the level of consonance between otolith and habitat chemistries. Both coupled and uncoupled trends were indicated, with the bulk of the results pointing to the need for additional research to test the working hypothesis that the otolith stores a temporal record of elemental chemistry of resident waters. Lack of simple correlations between elemental concentrations in sediment or liver and in otoliths indicate that other biological and geochemical factors influence otolith composition. (C) 1999 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles