BIOACUMULACIÓN Y BIOMAGNIFICACIÓN DE MERCURIO EN TIBURÓN AZUL Prionace glauca (LINNAEUS, 1758) DE LAS COSTAS ADYACENTES AL PUERTO DE SANTA ROSA DE SALINAS- ECUADOR

Abstract

Ecuador it’s positioned as one of the top Latin American countries that discharge mercury to the environment. A necessity to quantify the impact of mercury in sea life has appeared due to its highly toxicity and slowly degradation as a heavy metal. For that matter an investigation was done in the dry season of 2012 and 2013 in which through a sampling of 80 muscular tissue and 60 stomach contents of blue sharks captured and delivered into Santa Rosa’s Port it was identified the mean total mercury concentrations; the stomach content characterization and the biomagnification factor of the most frequent prey. The BIOACUMULACIÓN Y BIOMAGNIFICACIÓN DE MERCURIO EN Prionace glauca DESEMBARCADO EN EL PUERTO DE SANTA ROSA DE SALINAS- ECUADOR results indicated that the mean concentration of total mercury was of 0,77 mg kg-1 total mercury for all of the sampled sharks, Ancistrocheirus lesueurii as the most important specie in the blue shark diet offshore Ecuadorian coast and a mercury biomagnification factor of 0,19 in cephalopods; 1,26 in fish and 1,16 in marine mammals recollected in blue sharks stomach content.