Characterization of arsenic content in marine organisms from temperate, tropical, and polar environments

Overview

Fattorini, Notti, and Regoli measured total arsenic and selected arsenic species in bivalves, crustaceans, and fish from temperate, tropical, and polar marine environments. The paper is a baseline bioaccumulation study rather than a market-basket survey, but it reports edible soft parts for crustaceans, whole soft tissues for bivalves, and fish muscle fillets. Total arsenic and inorganic arsenic are separate signals; most speciation rows are dominated by organic arsenic compounds.

Key numbers

The abstract summarizes the overall total-arsenic range as less than 5 to about 200 µg g−1, with Mediterranean crustaceans about 45-110 µg g−1 and tropical crustaceans lower than 30 µg g−1. Concentrations are reported as µg g−1 dry weight.

Selected bivalve total-arsenic results from Figure 1 and the Results text:

Selected crustacean total-arsenic results from Figure 2 and the Results text:

For fish muscle, the Results text gives ranges and extremes rather than a full table in extractable text. Caribbean fish muscle ranged from Caranx hippos 2.18 +- 0.55 µg g−1 to Haemulon sp. 26.5 +- 0.77 µg g−1. Mediterranean fish muscle ranged from Sphyraena sphyraena 5.19 +- 2.47 µg g−1 to Scyliorhinus canicula 34.9 +- 6.84 µg g−1.

Table 2 reports arsenic-speciation percentages in selected species:

Methods (brief)

Samples were taken from Mediterranean coastal and trawling areas in the Adriatic, Ionian, and Tyrrhenian Seas; Cienfuegos Bay, Cuba; and Terra Nova Bay in the Antarctic Ross Sea. Bivalve samples used whole soft tissues of at least three specimens, crustacean samples used edible soft parts after removing carapaces, legs, and chelipeds, and fish were dissected into muscle fillets with liver also analyzed for some species. Samples were dried overnight at 60 °C, microwave-digested with hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid, and analyzed for total arsenic by graphite-furnace AAS with Zeeman correction. Speciation used methanol extraction, HPLC separation, and arsenic measurement in collected fractions.

Implications

This source provides baseline dry-weight arsenic occurrence context for fish, shellfish, and bivalve molluscs across tropical and Mediterranean seafood taxa. It supports broad seafood routing but should not be treated as a retail or jurisdiction-specific market benchmark. The speciation table indicates that inorganic arsenic was low in the representative unpolluted seafood rows, while total arsenic varied substantially by species and taxon.

Update history

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