Heavy metals in blue mussels (mytilus edulis) in the Bergen Harbor area, Western Norway
- Univ. of Bergen (Norway)
- Directorate of Fisheries, Bergen (Norway)
Heavy metal discharges to the marine environment are of great concern all over the world. Both essential (e.g., Fe, Zn, Cu) and non essential (e.g., Hg, Cd, Pb) metals are toxic to living organism when subjected to high concentration. Many heavy metals accumulate in organisms and some also accumulate in the food chain. The anthropogenic heavy metal outlets can in this way both reduce marine species diversity and ecosystem. Further, by consuming seafood, humans will be exposed to the metals with a potential danger to human health. Goldberg proposed to use marine mussels to monitor contamination levels of coastal waters. Since then marine mussels, especially the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), has been used widely as a surveillance organism. The blue mussel is regarded a suitable species for this purpose because it accumulates metals, it sessile, has a relatively long life span, is large enough for individual analysis, can tolerate a relatively wide range of temperature and salinity regimes, and can also synthesize the metal-binding protein, metallothionein, for metal detoxification. Furthermore, the blue mussel is a popular and tasteful food source and is suitable for culturing. The world-wide annual yield of mussels during the period 1988 to 1992 was about 1.3 million tons, of which about 0.5 million tons was Mytilus edulis. In Norway, the annual production was 77 tons in 1990. The interest of culturing mussels has increased in recent years, but the consumption of mussels has been hampered both by toxic algae and high levels of heavy metals. The latter is of special concern to those close to urban or industrial areas. This study investigated whether blue mussels in the Bergen Harbor area were contaminated with the heavy metals zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, and mercury, evaluating whether humans could eat them. 21 refs., 6 figs.
- OSTI ID:
- 482575
- Journal Information:
- Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Vol. 57, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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