Accumulation and depuration of petroleum hydrocarbons by black mussels. 2. Depuration of field-exposed mussels

Abstract

Results of depuration studies of mussels collected from chronically polluted sites and those collected after a fuel oil spill tend to confirm laboratory-deduced indications that the rate of depuration decreases as the exposure time increases. Chronically polluted mussels lost their accumulated hydrocarbons with half-lives for depuration that varied between 25 and 45 days whereas, after the oil spill, mussels lost 90 per cent of their accumulated burden within two weeks with a depuration half-life of 3,5 days. These results indicate that information concerning the type of exposure could be obtained from depuration studies of mussels collected during monitoring programmes. © 1988 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.