Total mercury in the Night Shark, Carcharhinus signatus in the western equatorial Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Mercury is the only element capable to biomagnificate along the food chain, and carnivorous fish tend to accumulate high concentrations of this element. Total mercury in muscle tissue of Carcharhinus signatus sampled along the western equatorial Atlantic Ocean was measured by atomic emission spectrophotometry with ICP/AES. The average total mercury concentrations were consistently greater than the maximum limit for human consumption established by the Brazilian Health Ministry for carnivorous fishes (1000 μg. kg-1 w.w.). Therefore, an average consumption of 0.1 kg/day of C. signatus would result in an average daily ingestion of 174.2 μg of Hg, more than five times the 30 μg/day intake established by the World Health Organization. In the range of lengths studied, body length could not be used as an indicator of the Hg contamination degree for C. signatus. Also, sex cannot be considered a determining factor in the total mercury accumulation in C. signatus.