Survey of Environmental Pollutants in Fish Catch from the Mediterranean Sea for Human Consumption: Preliminary Results

Due to growing concerns regarding persistent pollutants in the environment, extensive studies and monitoring programs have been carried out in the last two decades to determine their concentrations in water, sediment, and more recently, in biota. In 2017, the total human consumption of fish and fisheries products in Israel was 151 thousands of tons. Less than 1% of the consumption originated from the Mediterranean Sea. However, reports from recent years, may indicate a potential source of mercury pollution in the bay of Acre due to soil pollution by a plant that was shut down many years ago. In this survey, 301 samples were collected to represent 4 spots along the Israeli shore: Acre, Kishon, Jaffa and Ashdod. We tested 14 of the most consumed species and analyses for heavy metals: mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) were conducted. None of the samples contained Hg or Pb above the maximum permitted limit. In 3 out of 301 (1%) samples the levels of Cd exceeded the permitted limit. In 287 out of 301 (95%) high levels of total As were detected. Subsequently, 50 samples out of the 287 with high levels of total As were selected and analyzed for As speciation. Dimethylarsinate (DMA) and Monomethylarsonate (MMA) were below the limit of detection in all 50 samples. However, inorganic As (iAs) was detected in 47 samples with a different range of concentrations between the fish and invertebrates groups. Only 1 sample of fish and 1 sample of invertebrate (1.3%) exceeded 1 ppm of iAs. The ratio between iAs and total As ranged from 0.009 to 7.395 %. Further analyses are planned for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) and Organochlorine (OC) pesticides.