Concentrations of mercury and other toxic elements in orange roughy, Hoplostethus atlanticus, from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Concentrations of the elements mercury, arsenic, cadmium and lead were measured in the muscle tissue of Orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) obtained from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge during the MAR: -ECO: expedition in the North Atlantic Ocean in 2004. The age of the fish varied from 1 to 139 years. To the best of our knowledge, the concentration of the heavy metals presented here is for one of the oldest fish in the literature, in addition to the fact that very little information on arsenic in Orange roughy has been previously published. The concentration of mercury in the fillet of the fish varied between 0.06 and 1.1 μg g⁻¹ w.w. Mercury was the only element that was positively correlated to the age. The concentrations of mercury were found to be below the maximum limits for Orange roughy set by EU at 1.0 μg g⁻¹ w.w, except for a 134 year fish sample with a concentration of 1.1 μg g⁻¹ w.w.