Total and organic mercury concentrations in the muscles of Pacific albacore (Thunnus alalunga) and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus)

Chiee-Young Chen; Chien-Cheng Lai; Kuo-Shu Chen; Chien-Chung Hsu; Chin-Chang Hung; Meng-Hsien Chen

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.01.039

Total and organic mercury concentrations in the muscles of Pacific albacore (Thunnus alalunga) and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus)

Mar Pollut Bull. 2014 Aug 30;85(2):606-12. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.01.039. Epub 2014 Feb 18.

Authors

Chiee-Young Chen¹, Chien-Cheng Lai², Kuo-Shu Chen³, Chien-Chung Hsu⁴, Chin-Chang Hung⁵, Meng-Hsien Chen⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung Marine University, Kaohsiung 81143, Taiwan.
² Department of Marine Biotechnology and Resources, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
³ Department of Oceanography and Asia-Pacific Ocean Research Center, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan; Institute of Oceanography, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
⁴ Institute of Oceanography, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Oceanography and Asia-Pacific Ocean Research Center, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan; Taiwan Ocean Research Institute, National Applied Research Laboratories, Kaohsiung 85243, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Oceanography and Asia-Pacific Ocean Research Center, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan. Electronic address: mhchen@mail.nsysu.edu.tw.

PMID: 24559740
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.01.039

Abstract

Muscles of 115 North Pacific albacore (ALB, Thunnus alalunga) and 75 Pacific bigeye tuna (BET, Thunnus obesus), collected from 2001 to 2006, were analyzed. No ALB, but 13 large BET had organic mercury (OH g) concentrations exceeding 1 μg g(-1) wet weight. For both ALB and BET, total mercury (THg) and OH g concentrations were significantly and positively correlated with fork length (FL) and body weight. The muscle Hg bioaccumulation rates of BET were higher than those of ALB, particularly in the adult fish. Moreover, the lines had crossover points among the two species that imply the young BET (FL<110 cm) contains lower muscle Hg concentrations than ALB of the same size. The suggested weekly dietary intake of ALB and small-BET meats is 340 g, and of BET meat it is 150 g for a 60-kg person based on the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of methylmercury set by the WHO.

Keywords: Growth dilution; Heavy metal; Hg pollution; Methylmercury; Predatory fish; Seafood safety.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Body Weight
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Food Contamination / analysis
Mercury / analysis*
Mercury / metabolism
Muscle, Skeletal / chemistry*
Organomercury Compounds / analysis*
Organomercury Compounds / metabolism
Seafood / analysis
Tuna* / growth & development
Tuna* / metabolism
Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*
Water Pollutants, Chemical / metabolism

Substances

Organomercury Compounds
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Mercury