Harding et al. 2018 - Methylmercury in Bay of Fundy marine food webs
This PLoS ONE study measured methylmercury and total mercury across plankton, shellfish, finfish, and marine mammals in the outer Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine. It is routeable for seafood context because Table 3 reports wet-weight fish and shellfish concentrations, including swordfish and bluefin tuna.
Key numbers
Source units are ng/g wet weight.
- Swordfish: MeHg mean 639 +/- 229; median 628, range 249-1187; THg mean 1245 +/- 729; median 1192, range 428-3233; n=11.
- Bluefin tuna: MeHg 496 +/- 102; median 504, range 397-639; THg mean 565 +/- 88; median 576, range 465-696.
- Spiny dogfish: MeHg 83.9 +/- 27.0; median 79.9, range 4.4-156.2; THg 99.3 +/- 27.2; median 103.2, range 63.6-169.2; n=16.
- Blue mussel: MeHg 5.3 +/- 1.1; median 5.1, range 3.7-7.1; THg 19.6 +/- 5.6; median 20.1, range 10-27.3; n=12.
- American lobster: MeHg 27.1 +/- 11.1; median 24.1, range 17.2-47.9; THg 35.9 +/- 10.2; median 33.5, range 23-55; n=9.
Methods
The authors sampled seawater, plankton, seaweed, shellfish, finfish, and marine mammals from the Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine food web and measured MeHg and THg on a wet-weight basis.
Implications
The source strongly supports methylmercury context for predatory marine fish and broader seafood biomagnification. Mammal values and plankton values should remain ecological context rather than consumer-food occurrence.
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Verification notes
- Source identity checked against DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0197220 and the downloaded PDF.
- Table 3 fish and shellfish values are transcribed on the wet-weight basis used by the source.
Page history
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