Occurrence and distribution of persistent organic pollutants in the liver and muscle of Atlantic blue sharks: Relevance and health risks

Evidence of Contamination-Associated Damage in Blue Sharks (Prionace Glauca) from the Northeast Atlantic

“…No sex-associated differences in the liver concentrations of either organic or inorganic contaminants were found for any of the assessed compounds (Wilcoxon Rank Sum, all p > 0.05). Positive correlations with sharks' size (FL) were found for all organic contaminant groups assessed in liver samples (Muñoz-Arnanz et al, 2022), and tmoderate and weak positive correlations were observed for the concentrations of As (rho = 0.478, p-value = 1.138e −4 ) and Fe (rho = 0.366, p-value = 4.042e −3 ), respectively. Additionally, a weak negative correlation between FL and Sr was detected (rho = −0.274, p-value = 3.414e-2 ).…”

“…The concentrations of inorganic and organic contaminants in the liver and muscle of the sharks were previously determined, and the methodology for the analysis have been described in detail in Muñoz-Arnanz et al (2022) and Alves et al (2023). Briefly, inorganic contaminants were measured using total x-ray fluorescence (TXRF), and organic contaminants were measured using gas chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS).…”

“…The concentrations of organic and inorganic contaminants measured in the blue sharks' liver samples have been previously described in the works by Muñoz-Arnanz et al (2022) and Alves et al (2023), respectively, and a summary can be seen in Supplementary Table 1. Since Alves et al (2023) focused the analysis on the inorganic contaminants' accumulation mainly in the muscle tissue, accumulation data on the liver will be further explored herein.…”

“…While blue shark muscle tends to possess higher concentrations of inorganic contaminants when compared with the liver (Alves et al, 2023;Boldrocchi et al, 2019), the latter usually assimilates contaminants faster, giving insight to more recent exposures and therefore allowing for a better tracking of contamination. The liver is also the organ where some of the most nefarious contaminants (i.e., organic) tend to accumulate preferably (Boldrocchi et al, 2019;Muñoz-Arnanz et al, 2022) and where the first and main responses to contamination occur, making it ideal to study not only the concentrations of contaminants but also the early responses they may elicit.…”

“…Sharks have the potential to be used as bioindicators of pollution (Alves et al, 2022), and blue sharks in particular have been extensively used as pollution sentinels (Tiktak et al, 2020). This species has also shown potential to give insight into the impacts of contamination on marine ecosystem (Alves et al, 2015(Alves et al, , 2016Barrera-García et al, 2013) and has shown to pose some potential risks to human consumers (Alves et al, 2023;Muñoz-Arnanz et al, 2022). In a previous work, the concentrations of contaminants in the tissues of blue sharks captured in different zones of the North Atlantic were assessed, with the sharks captured closer to continental shore exhibiting higher levels of contamination when compared with their counterparts captured in a more oceanic environment (Alves et al, 2023).…”