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Most consumers are exposed to toxic methylmercury when they eat fish. But the research has just been published in the journal ACS Environmental Science and Technology could help clarify why tuna methylmercury concentrations vary geographically.
Inorganic mercury compounds are released into the atmosphere from natural sources, such as volcanoes, and from anthropogenic sources, such as fossil fuel combustion and gold mining. Some of these compounds are deposited in the oceans, where natural processes convert them into methylmercury. This substance is then naturally transferred to marine creatures, including tuna, which sometimes contain quantities exceeding the recommendations for food security. David Point, Anne Lorraine, Valérie Allain and their colleagues wanted to map regional variations in methylmercury levels in tuna and to study the biological, environmental and ecological factors behind these variations.
Scientists have studied bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and albacore caught in a region known as the central and western Pacific Ocean. The researchers found that methylmercury levels were below the food safety recommendations for most samples. In addition, they confirmed earlier findings from other ocean regions, according to which body size was the primary determinant of contamination within a species, with larger fish accumulating in their tissues a concentration higher methylmercury than the smaller ones. They found that the sea surface temperature and depth of the oceanic layer in which tuna were feeding also affected this concentration. The team has developed a model that relies on these results to predict methylmercury levels in tuna. The model worked well for the WCPO, as well as for the central-north and center-equatorial Pacific oceans, although it underestimated fish levels in the eastern Pacific Ocean equatorial. The researchers say their findings could help evaluate the risks and benefits of eating tuna caught in a particular location or tuna of different sizes.
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The authors thank the Great South Pacific Observatory, the Pacific Fund's VACOPA project, the Pacific Community, the Government of New Caledonia, the Research Institute for Development and the National Research Agency's MERTOX project. .
The article summary will be available Jan. 23 at 8 pm Eastern Time, at the following address: http: // pubs.
The American Chemical Society, the largest scientific society in the world, is a nonprofit organization accredited by the US Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publishes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are located in Washington, DC and Columbus, Ohio.
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