Effect of environs and seasonality on metal residues in tissues of wild and pond-raised crayfish in southern Louisiana

Abstract

Two commercially important species of Louisiana crayfish, Procambarus clarkii (Girard) and P. acutus acutus (Girard), from the Atchafalaya River Basin, from open ponds and from the sediment and water of these environs were sampled three times during two consecutive fishing (production) seasons. The abdominal muscle and hepatopancreatic tissue were analyzed separately. Lead, mercury, and cadmium, if present, were in concentrations below the detection limit. In the hepatopancreatic tissue, barium was present in concentrations below 8 mg/kg, copper 11-15 mg/kg, and iron below 640 mg/kg. Abdominal muscle samples had less than 3 mg/kg of most metals. Locations with the highest levels of metal residues in sediment were not necessarily locations where crayfish had the highest levels in their tissues.

Trace element concentrations in red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) and surface sediments in Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi natural reserve, SW Sicily

“…The CF of Pb indicate a considerable contamination of Preola Lake and a very high contamination of Gorgo Medio Lake. Moreover, these concentrations are of the same order of magnitude as those reported by other authors in sediment samples from highly polluted lakes (Alcorlo et al 2006;Finerty et al 1990;Schilderman et al 1999). As shown in Table 6, our results show the absence of contamination in the study area for the other trace elements.…”

“…2, several of the samples analysed here exceeded this concentration. As shown in Table 7, our Pb concentrations fall well within the range of concentrations found by Suarez-Serrano et al (2010), Finerty et al (1990) and Sánchez-López et al (2004) from highly industrialized areas, but are clearly higher than those found by Hothem et al (2007), Faria et al (2010) and Alcorlo et al (2006) from highly polluted areas and much higher than those found by Madigosky et al (1991) and Elia et al (2006) in unpolluted areas.…”

“…Data on V concentrations are too rare to make any tentative comparison. However, based on a first preliminary comparison, we found higher V concentrations with respect to those found by Finerty et al (1990) and Hothem et al (2007) from highly industrialized areas. Previous studies have been demonstrated that the process of cooking crayfish tails could affect trace metal concentrations.…”

“…Despite the low Ni concentrations found in the sediment samples, Ni concentrations found in muscle tissues fall within the range of concentrations found by previous authors in heavily polluted waters (Table 7). Moreover, concentrations found in hepatopancreas tissues were higher than those found by Finerty et al (1990) in a heavy industrialized area and by Madden et al (1991) in an unpolluted area. Due to the absence of standard toxicity values for Ni concentrations in crustacean muscles, it is difficult to establish if the concentrations found here could be considered harmful.…”

“…Much higher Zn and Cu concentrations have been previously reported in sediment samples from heavily polluted lakes (up to 415 and 2250 mg/kg d.w. for Cu and Zn, respectively, found by Alcorlo et al 2006;up to 116 and 1654 mg/kg d.w. for Cu and Zn found by Schilderman et al 1999). Although much higher As concentrations have been found previously in sediment samples from other freshwater systems (up to 186 and 227 mg/kg d.w. found, respectively, by Finerty et al 1990 andAlcorlo et al 2006), all the sediment samples ranged from moderately polluted to heavily polluted for As (except for sites P5 and Gm1) when compared with the SQGs. The CF of As indicate a considerable contamination of the two lakes for this element.…”