Heavy Metals in Commercial Fish from the Barents Sea (Winter 2011)

Abstract

To assess the significance of metals in biota of the Barents Sea, preliminary information is presented on concentrations of Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Mn, Co, Pb, Fe, Cd and As in livers and muscle tissues of 3 commercial fish species collected in winter 2011. Generally, our results are within the reported literature range for regarding some commercially important species like cod and flounders indicating that metal levels are not elevated. The interspecific variability is not substantial; we only found significant difference for Fe concentrations for muscle, with the highest concentrations measured in long rough dab and the lowest in cod. To assess whether metal levels found in fish samples from the Barents Sea are safe for human consumption, a comparison is made to reference values for fish muscle and fish liver. Available data suggest that all muscle and liver of fish analysed in this study may be regarded as safe, since they are far below these thresholds.