Mercury levels in the Smooth Hammerhead Shark Sphyrna zygaena (Carcharhiniformes: Sphyrnidae) from Northern Peru

Authors

  • Adriana Gonzalez-Pestana 1 ProDelphinus. Jose Galvez 780-e, Lima 18, Perú. 2 Universidad Científica del Sur. Facultad de Biología Marina, Panamericana Sur, Km 19, Lima, Perú.
  • Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto 1 ProDelphinus. Jose Galvez 780-e, Lima 18, Perú. 2 Universidad Científica del Sur. Facultad de Biología Marina, Panamericana Sur, Km 19, Lima, Perú. 3 Center for Ecology and Conservation, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter. Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ, United Kingdom
  • Jeffrey C. Mangel 1 ProDelphinus. Jose Galvez 780-e, Lima 18, Perú. 3 Center for Ecology and Conservation, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter. Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ, United Kingdom
  • Pepe Espinoza Instituto del Mar del Perú. Esquina Gamarra con General Valle, Chucuito, Callao, Perú.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15381/rpb.v24i4.14066

Keywords:

mercury, sharks, Peru, elasmobranchs, Bioaccumulation, Biomagnification, Trace metals, Marine pollution, public health, food contaminant.

Abstract

The smooth hammerhead shark Sphyrna zygaena (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the elasmobranch species most used for human consumption in Peru. However, the level of mercury in hammerhead muscle tissue is unknown. This study assessed the level of mercury found in the muscle of hammerhead sharks and its relation with human health. Moreover, we evaluated the relationship between shark body size and mercury levels. We analyzed 27 muscle samples of neonates and juveniles captured in northern Peru. Mercury concentrations varied between 0.13 and 0.86 mg kg-1 wet weight. Moreover, we found a negative and significant relationship between shark body size and mercury levels. This study represents the first evaluation of mercury levels of sharks in Peru. Although the values found do not exceed levels recommended by the World Health Organization (< 1 mg kg-1), we recommend expanding this study to include other size classes of sharks as well as other marine resources used for human consumption.

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Published

12/21/2017

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 4 (2017)

Section

Notes

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Adriana Gonzalez-Pestana, Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto, Jeffrey C. Mangel, Pepe Espinoza

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

AUTHORS RETAIN THEIR RIGHTS:

a. Authors retain their trade mark rights and patent, and also on any process or procedure described in the article.

b. Authors retain their right to share, copy, distribute, perform and publicly communicate their article (eg, to place their article in an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in the Revista Peruana de Biologia.

c. Authors retain theirs right to make a subsequent publication of their work, to use the article or any part thereof (eg a compilation of his papers, lecture notes, thesis, or a book), always indicating its initial publication in the Revista Peruana de Biologia (the originator of the work, journal, volume, number and date).

How to Cite

Gonzalez-Pestana, Adriana, Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto, Jeffrey C. Mangel, and Pepe Espinoza. 2017. “Mercury Levels in the Smooth Hammerhead Shark Sphyrna Zygaena (Carcharhiniformes: Sphyrnidae) from Northern Peru”. Revista Peruana De Biología 24 (4): 407-11. https://doi.org/10.15381/rpb.v24i4.14066.