A time series of mercury accumulation and improvement of dietary feed in net caged Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

The study was undertaken to investigate the uptake of mercury in salmon throughout the entire farming period at the net cage. Mercury concentrations in muscle, liver, kidney, and gill and responses to the various dietary mercury concentrations were determined. The accumulation of mercury is in the order of kidney > gill = liver > muscle. The highest mercury peak concentrations were observed for both kidney and gill at the parr-smolt period, while liver and muscle mercury peaked one month later after caging at the grow-out site. High dietary sodium and calcium fed to the salmon contributed to the elevation of mercury in kidney and gill during the smolting process. The mercury burden over the grow-out period increased sharply with a linear relationship of mercury uptake. The tissue mercury burden per gram of growth was calculated using the slope of mercury burden and the slope of growth over the period of each stage. The results showed dietary mercury loadings on marketable salmon were within tolerance limits of FDA and US EPA. Rapid growth of salmon and low dietary mercury progressively reduces the uptake of mercury in salmon. The time series of mercury monitoring showed that mercury concentrations in salmon were greater at the parr stage in freshwater than at the grow-out stage in salt water.