Náttúrufræðingurinn - 2006, Page 48

Náttúrufræðingurinn
were in accordance with standardized
methods, e.g. ASTM 2001 (Standard
Guide for Conducting In-situ Field
Bioassays with Caged Bivalves).
When mussels are kept in cages sever-
al factors need to be considered. The con-
dition of the cages and mussels must be
inspected. In the Hvalfjordur in-
vestigations, such inspection was made
when the mussels had been in their cages
for about one month, at which time their
spawning season was expected to be
completed. The cages were almost cover-
ed with 1-2 mm juvenile mussels that
were removed with a brush. It is also nec-
essary to keep the mussels in their cages
for at least 1 month after the spawning
season so that they can accumulate en-
ough pollution to compensate for the am-
ount that was possibly removed by the
spawning. Furthermore, the mussels
should not be kept in the cages for too
long, since several studies have sugge-
sted that, e.g. in metal polluted water, the
mussels can adjust to the situation by
forming metallothioneins that can bind
metal ions and lead to their excretion
from tissues. Also, the risk of damage to
the cages and associated equipment can
increase with prolonged time in the wa-
ter. Finally the risk of damage is reduced
during summer, when storms, ice forma-
tion and large waves are not as signi-
ficant as in other seasons.
The investigations in Hvalfjordur dur-
ing the summer of 2004 indicate that if
the mussels are in good physical condi-
tion at the beginning of their deploy-
ment, if they are able to filter seawater
continuously the entire time within the
cages, and if they have large enough
space to grow, the mussels are expected
to stay healthy within the cages during
the investigation period. This is import-
ant since the concentration of pollutants
measured in the tissues of healthy mussel
tends to reveal the most accurate pollu-
tion levels of seawater in the area, part-
icularly for the bioavailable pollutants.
The results of chemical measurements
of soft tissue from the mussels in Hval-
fjordur suggest that so far the impact of
the plants within the fjord is small regar-
ding the accumulation of pollutants in
marine organisms in the vicinity. The
amount of PAH, heavy metals and other
inorganic substances was below or at the
analyzing limits of the method used
except for the PAH substance
benzo(a)pyren in mussels from two sta-
tions, at 5 m depth, north of the harbour
at Grundartangi. However, the amount
is well below the critical limits for the
substance in food/mussels in the EU
countries and Norway. Despite the low
amount of pollutants measured in the
soft tissue from mussels in Hvalfjordur
the results of the chemical measurements
reveal that regular monitoring of the
marine organisms in the vicinity of the
plants is necessary.
Heimildir
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Veiledning 97:03 Statens forurensningstilsyn (SFT).
Um höfund
Jóhanna B. Weisshappel lauk meistaranámi í
sjávarlíffræði frá Háskóla íslands 1996. Sam-
hliða námi var hún aðstoðarkennari við líf-
fræðiskor Háskólans og aðstoðarmaður við
botndýrarannsóknir á Líffræðistofnun Háskól-
ans. Árið 1997 vann hún hjá Alþjóðahafrann-
sóknaráðinu (ICES) í Kaupmannahöfn og
1998-1999 á Líffræðistofnun Háskólans. Frá ár-
inu 2000 hefur hún unnið að verkefnum sem
tengjast umhverfisvöktun, mati á umhverfisá-
hrifum, grænu bókhaldi og ýmsu öðru sem lýt-
ur að mengunarmálum og lífríki hjá Hönnun
hf., ráðgjafarfyrirtæki og verkfræðistofu.
PÓSTFANG HÖFUNDAR/AUTHOR’S ADDRESS
Jóhanna Björk Weisshappel
jw@honnun.is
Hönnun hf.
Grensásvegi 1
IS-108 Reykjavík
108