Essential and non-essential elements in eight tissue types from subsistencehunted bowhead whale: Nutritional and toxicological assessment

Abstract

Objectives. To assess essential/non-essential elements in bowhead whale. Study Design. Analyzes of tissues for key elements and comparing them to published food guidelines. Methods. Using national and international guidelines calculate percent (%) "Recommended Daily Allowance" of essential elements in 100 g portion of bowhead tissues. For non-essential elements, determine maximal tissue consumption based on average element concentrations and provisional tolerable weekly intake; and minimal risk level. Results. Liver and kidney are rich in essential/non-essential elements and have the greatest concentration of cadmium (Cd) among tissues studied, while mercury (Hg), lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) are relatively low. Kidney of bowhead whale is consumed in very limited amounts (limited tissue mass compared to muscle and maktak); liver is consumed rarely. Other tissues, except blubber, are excellent sources of many essential elements, without the abundance of liver and kidney Cd. Conclusions. Renal Cd concentrations are most restrictive for consumption on a tissue mass basis. Better understanding of Cd bioavailability, food processing, and actual consumption rates and patterns, are critical to providing improved guidance. Compared to store-bought meat, bowhead whale had comparable concentrations of elements in the tissues studied, with a few noted differences. The occasional blubber substitute, Crisco, was nearly devoid of trace element content. (Int J Circumpolar Health 2006:65(3):228-242.)

Traditional Diet and Environmental Contaminants in Coastal Chukotka IV: Recommended Intake Criteria

“…Using the conditionally adopted average weight and the highest concentrations of contaminants analyzed in food items, we suggest the non-exceedance of contaminants TDIs by the overwhelming majority of the community. Principal assumptions and instruments of the present study are similar to that carried out in Alaska by O’Hara team [14,15,16], but the applications of the results are different.…”

“…Among those are meal structure, consumption patterns, and how the different ingredients are prepared and combined in order to achieve the flavors, aromas, textures, and the multi-sensory appeal that pleases the gustatory, olfactory, ocular senses and cravings (see article I in this issue, which offers an overview of the core practices of cuisine for our study region). We are finding that, to date, even those studies of environmental contaminants in the circumpolar Arctic that do consider certain aspects of food and cooking (such as the comparative analysis of contaminants and nutrients in certain marine mammal products and seafood consumed in Northwest Alaska [14,15,16] and the Northern Fish Nutrition Guide for the James Bay Region [19], developed collaboratively with Inuit communities and Indigenous organizations) tend to focus on the individual sources of the locally harvested food, rather than cuisine. In other words, while offering information on contaminants and nutrients in a particular species of fish and ways in which the given fish can be smoked, dried, or baked, the guide does not delve into the web of social and aesthetic relationships that is cuisine.…”

Traditional Diet and Environmental Contaminants in Coastal Chukotka III: Metals

“…Only a few publications on metals in marine mammals in Chukotka Alaska are available. Bowhead whale tissues sampled in Barrow, Alaska, in 2002–2003 [18] were analyzed for several metals, part of which we can compare with the present study gray whale that was sampled in Chukotka in 2016. Concentrations of Hg, Cd, Pb, As, Mn, Cu, and Zn in the meat and blubber of Alaskan bowhead whales were very similar to the corresponding concentrations of these metals in Chukotka gray whale meat and blubber.…”

Investigating the dynamics of methylmercury bioaccumulation in the Beaufort Sea shelf food web: a modeling perspective

“…105 In contrast to beluga whales, the model-simulated concentration of bowhead whales (0.023 mg g À1 ) based on the assumption of feeding solely in the Beaufort Sea is very close to the literature value (0.020 mg g À1 ). The observed bowhead Hg data come from the subsistence hunt in Barrow, 106 which occurs during both spring and fall as whales migrate between the Bering and Beaufort Seas. 105,107 We postulate that the similarity between the literature value and model simulation is due to (1) the large fraction of samples from the fall hunt which captures the bowhead whales aer feeding in the Beaufort Sea for the whole summer, 107 and/or (2) a similar MeHg concentration in their diet (i.e., small to moderate sized crustaceans, such as euphausiids and copepods) between the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas.…”