Fróðskaparrit - 01.07.2004, Side 126

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MERCURY IN THE FAROE ISLANDS — A REVIEW OF AVAILABLE DATA
Ad. cr cr Ad. 9 9 Juveniles
Study 1
N 4 20 21
Age, mean 17 14,6 2,4
Hg, muscle 1,88 0,8 0,38
Hg, liver 151 155 11,6
Study 2
N 3 11 7 cr cr 10 9 9
Age, yrs, mean 19 15 3 cr cr 29 9
Age, yrs, range 13-22 8-27 1-5 1 -5
Length,cm,range 204 - 227 164-190 129-171 121 - 156
Hg, muscle 2,31 0,84 0,37 0,37
“, stddev. 2,22 0,4 0,26 0,27
“,range 0,42^1,76 0,23-1,51 0,15-0,90 0,16-0,92
Table 17. Mean Mercury concentation, in mg/kg ww, in grey sealfrom arountl the Faroe Islands 1993-1995.
(Study 1: Larsen and Dam, 1999; Study 2: Dam, 2001).
cadmium, lead and copper as well as per-
sistent organic pollutants and polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons in pooled samples
consisting of muscle and liver from 4 adult
males, 20 adult females and 21 juveniles
(from 2-4 yrs) (Larsen and Dam, 1999).
The mercury results are given in Table 17
along with those from a more detailed
study, in which individual analyses of per-
sistent organic pollutants and mercury (Fig.
18) were done on muscle and blubber from
31 grey seals (Dam, 2001).
Liver and muscle metal concentration in
grey seal from the Baltic and Sable Island
(Arctic Canada) are available for compari-
son (Nyman et al., 2002). In the Baltic, the
average liver mercury concentration in fe-
males (n=l 1) was 109 mg/kg with a range
of 15-348 mg/kg, In the males, the similar
mean was 41 mg/kg with a range 15-99
mg/kg mercury in liver. In the sable Island,
the corresponding mercury concentrations
were 101 mg/kg (range 45-252) and 116
mg/kg (range 27-278) in females (n=10)
and males (n=10) respectively. Direct com-
parison to the Faroese grey seals are com-
plicated by the fact that the mercury con-
centrations in the other study were calculat-
ed for seals of not available age, and likely
includes both adult and juvenile individu-
als. However, the mercury concentration in
the groups of adult grey seals in the Faroes
are approx. 150 mg/kg whereas the concen-
tration in the pool of juveniles were 11,6
mg/kg, thus it appears likely that the mer-
cury concentration in Baltic, Sable Island
and Faroe Islands grey seal are quite simi-
lar. Interestingly, the liver cadmium con-
centration in the Faroese grey seal (not
shown), which was 14,6 mg/kg in the adult
females (n=20) and 1,85 mg/kg (n=4) in the
adult males was found to be significantly
higher in females also in the Baltic Sea and
Sable Island samples. The overall liver cad-
mium concentrations in the Baltic and
Sable Islands female grey seal samples