Fróðskaparrit - 01.07.2004, Page 109

KYKSILVUR í FØROYUM - EIN GJØGNUMGONGD AV TØKUM DÁTUM
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Fig. 8 Mercury in fish
caught in Faroe shelf
waters intended for the
export market is shown,
in mg/kg salt fish. (HS
Journals 1979-1989).
the range 0,01-0,05 mg/kg (Table 10) is
comparable to what is found in Denmark
(Markager et al., 1998) and in the Hardan-
gerfjord and Langesund area in Norway,
that is at the higher end of the range of con-
centrations found in the Norwegian JAMP
(Green et al., 2000).
OSPAR (QSR 2000) has reported a back-
ground/reference range of 0,005 to 0,01
mg/kg mercury in blue mussels. Overall,
the mercury concentration in blue mussel
samples from the Faroes are above this
background level, and if ranked by the
same criteria as used in Norway (Molvær et
al., 1997) the locations Hvannasund and
Trongisvágur where the mercury concen-
tration expressed on a dry weight basis
equals 0,2 and 0,3 mg/kg dw respectively,
will be in the category “moderately pollut-
ed”.
Marine fish
Monitoring of mercury in fish for export
was common during the eighties, and data
on mercury in various fish species with in-
formation on fish length and often origin, in
the period from 1979 to 1992, are in store at
the Heilsufrøðiliga Starvsstovan. Fish
species included in this monitoring were
mainly cod (Gadus morhua), saithe (Pol-
lachius virens), ling (Molva molva), blue
ling (Molva byrkelange) and torsk (Bros-
Fig. 9 Mercury in codfor
the export market is
shown, in mg/kg saltfish
(HSJournals 1979-1989;
Gregersen, 2001; Heilsu-
frøðiliga starvsstovan).
Datafrom 1993 and on-
wards have been adjusted
to be comparable to salt-
fish-data by multiplying
the measured mercury
concentration by two.
Only resultsfor cod fillets
oflength 40-60 cm were
included.