Correlation of Mercury Occurrence with Age, Elemental Composition, and Life History in Sea-Run Food Fish from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago’s Lower Northwest Passage

As mercury emissions continue and climate-mediated permafrost thaw increases the burden of this contaminant in northern waters, Inuit from a Northwest passage community in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago pressed for an assessment of their subsistence catches. Sea-run salmonids (n = 537) comprising A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Foods Vol. 10; no. 11; p. 2621
Main Authors:	Koch, Iris, Das, Pranab, McPhedran, Bronte E., Casselman, John M., Moniz, Kristy L., van Coeverden de Groot, Peter, Qitsualik, James, Muir, Derek, Schott, Stephan, Walker, Virginia K.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Basel MDPI AG 29-10-2021 MDPI
Subjects:	Age anadromous salmonids Archipelagoes Arctic char Bioaccumulation Chemical composition Children cisco Commercial fishing Community Contaminants Coregonus autumnalis Coregonus clupeaformis Coregonus sardinella Dimethylmercury Emissions Fish Fisheries Fishing Food contamination & poisoning Food fish Food science Growth rate Ice Inuit Inuktitut language Investigations Isotopes lake trout lake whitefish Lakes Life history Mercury Mercury (metal) Methylmercury Muscles Neurotoxins Nitrogen isotopes Permafrost Rivers Salmonids Salvelinus alpinus Salvelinus namaycush Selenium Stable isotopes Toxins Trophic levels Trout Canada Nunavut Territory Canada Arctic region
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Summary:	As mercury emissions continue and climate-mediated permafrost thaw increases the burden of this contaminant in northern waters, Inuit from a Northwest passage community in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago pressed for an assessment of their subsistence catches. Sea-run salmonids (n = 537) comprising Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), lake trout (S. namaycush), lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), and cisco (C. autumnalis, C. sardinella) were analyzed for muscle mercury. Methylmercury is a neurotoxin and bioaccumulated with fish age, but other factors including selenium and other elements, diet and trophic level as assessed by stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C), as well as growth rate, condition, and geographic origin, also contributed depending on the species, even though all the fish shared a similar anadromous or sea-run life history. Although mean mercury concentrations for most of the species were ~0.09 µg·g−1 wet weight (ww), below the levels described in several jurisdictions for subsistence fisheries (0.2 µg·g−1 ww), 70% of lake trout were above this guideline (0.35 µg·g−1 ww), and 19% exceeded the 2.5-fold higher levels for commercial sale. We thus urge the development of consumption advisories for lake trout for the protection of pregnant women and young children and that additionally, periodic community-based monitoring be initiated.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2304-8158 2304-8158
DOI:	10.3390/foods10112621