Congener-Specific Determination of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Shark and Grouper Livers from the Northwest African Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Concentrations of 24 individual PCB congeners have been measured in livers of groupers (Epinephelus marginatus) and eight shark species (Centroscymnus coelolepis, Centrophorus squamosus, Dalatias licha, Hydrolagus affinis, Deania profundorum, Centroscymnus cryptacanthus, Etmopterus princeps, Deania histricosa) collected between 1994 and 1995 from the northwest African Atlantic Ocean. The concentration range of the total PCBs was 39.4-4,723 ng/g (wet weight). The TEQs found were between 0.15 and 197 pg/g (wet weight). Analysis has revealed differences in PCB content and PCB profiles among the eight shark and grouper species. The location and depth at which the shark lives and the liver lipid content were related with their PCB liver concentrations. The PCB profiles were dominated by congeners 138 and 153, and among the most toxic congeners the order of abundance was PCB 77 > 126 > 169. Chiral PCBs 95, 132, 136, 149, and 174 were found to be racemic or nearly racemic in almost all the groupers (E. marginatus) studied. The PCB profiles of shark species and groupers were compared by principal component analysis. Samples were separated into groups according their trophic levels and geographical variations.

Bioaccumulation of organohalogenated compounds in sharks and rays from the southeastern USA

“…The presence of higher chlorinated PCBs in elasmobranchs rather than the lower chlorinated congeners seems typical across these species. This has been reported earlier for other species, such as gulper sharks, Centrophorus granulosus, and longnose spurdogs Squalus blainvillei (Storelli and Marcotrigiano, 2001), eight shark species from northwest Africa (Serrano et al, 2000), blue sharks, Prionace glauca, and kitefin sharks Dalatias licha (Storelli et al, 2005) and Atlantic stingrays from Florida (Johnson-Restrepo et al, 2005). Overall, penta-, hexa-and hepta-PCBs were the most dominant in all species of the present study.…”

Distribution of trace elements in the tissues of smooth hound Mustelus mustelus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the southern–eastern waters of Mediterranean Sea (Italy)

“…This, in combination with contaminant inputs originating directly from industrial and urban sources located along the coast, makes this environment particularly interesting from the point view of contamination. Nevertheless, trace metal concentrations in these organisms are not well documented either in the Mediterranean area or in other marine regions, and the few studies concentrate on muscle tissue and/or liver only (Adams and McMichael 1999;Endo et al 2008;Ferreira et al 2004;Gibbs and Miskiewicz 1995;Lacerda et al 2000;Mársico et al 2007;McMeans et al 2007;Pinho et al 2002;Powell and Powell 2001;Serrano et al 1997Serrano et al , 2000Storelli et al 2003;Turoczy et al 2000), without any broader picture of the accumulation processes and distribution of the metals among the other tissues. According to the mechanisms of absorption, regulation, storage, and excretion of metals, the various fish tissues present varying bioaccumulation rates and due to their different roles in the above processes, their analysis lead to results with special interest and interpretation (Catsiki and Strogyloudi 1999).…”

Chirality as an Environmental Forensics Tool

“…Cod liver oils had nonracemic compositions of the same analytes as measured in the purchased fish oils [215], consistent with nonracemic OC pesticides (except for a-HCH, which was racemic) and PCBs found in NIST Standard Reference Material 1588a, cod liver oil [105]. Nonracemic PCBs were observed in livers of sharks [87,222] and groupers [87], while Arctic cod in the Northwater Polynya had racemic PCBs [192]. Similar nonracemity in PCBs was also observed for a number of freshwater fish species in the highly contaminated Lake Hartwell reservoir, as well as in streams and rivers throughout the US [196].…”

“…Enantioselective HPLC has been less popular for enantiomer resolution of chiral POPs, given its lower chromatographic resolution compared to GC, but has been used for quantification purposes [83,84]. More commonly, HPLC has been used to purify POP enantiomers to simplify subsequent analysis by GC [85][86][87]; to collect sufficientmaterial [88] to determine chemical properties such as (þ) or (À) rotational designation and chromatographic elution order [20,39,57,[89][90][91][92][93], absolute configuration by vibrational circular dichroism [94,95], and chemical stability [96]; to characterize enantiomer-specific environmental fate and toxicity studies [19,20,97]; and to analyze POPs that are not thermally stable and cannot be measured by GC, such as HBCDDs [58,98,99]. Enantioselective CE, while a highly efficient analytical separations technique with up to a million theoretical plates, has not been used much for environmental analysis to date.…”