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Arsenic in the top predators sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) and dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) off the southeastern Gulf of California

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Abstract

Distribution of arsenic (As) in tissues and gonads of the Indo-Pacific sailfish Istiophorus platypterus and the dolphinfish Coryphaena hippurus from the SE Gulf of California was evaluated. The bioaccumulation patterns of As were the same in the two species. In I. platypterus, As levels (mg kg−1, wet weight) were gonads (7.4 ± 1.1) > liver (3.1 ± 0.1) > kidney (2.7 ± 0.1) > muscle (1.6 ± 0.1); in C. hippurus, As (mg kg−1) levels were gonads (4.3 ± 0.6) > liver (3.2 ± 0.2) > kidney (2.3 ± 0.1) > muscle (1.2 ± 0.1). Differences in As distribution could be attributed to the biological functions of tissues. The hypothesis was confirmed that biomagnification was evidenced by the fact that As levels were lower in prey species than in predators. Intake of muscle from either fish did not represent a risk to humans if recommended portions a week are not exceeded, adults as much as 1802.4 g and 2454.1 g and children 257.5 and 350.6 g, for sailfish and dolphinfish, respectively. In addition, the likelihood of developing cancer due to consumption of edible tissues from either of these top predators was in the acceptable range (6.4 × 10−5 to 27.3 × 10−6 for a population that consumes 50 g of muscle in a week) but if a conservative combined slope factor is used the probabilities to develop bladder and lung cancer increments from 1.1 × 10−3 to 9.1 × 10−5.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thanks to H. Bojórquez-Leyva for assistance in analytical work.

Funding

Study supported by the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (DGAPA-PAPIIT-UNAM) Project IN200619 titled “Metales y metaloides en ríos y presas de cuencas mineras de Sinaloa: identificando contaminación y riesgos para la salud”; and DGIP-UAS (Dirección General de Investigación y Posgrado-Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa) (Grant number: IN208213).

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All authors contributed to this work. FPO and MEBT conceived the ideas and designed the research; MEBT contributed to formal analysis; FPO contributed to funding acquisition; MEBT and JFMF contributed to methodology; MEBT, CCOM and JFMF contributed to investigation; MEBT and JFMF contributed to methodology; FPO and JFMF contributed to resources and supervision; MEBT and CCOM contributed to writing—original draft; FPO, MEBT, CCOM and JFMF contributed to writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Federico Páez-Osuna.

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Bergés-Tiznado, M.E., Márquez-Farías, J.F., Osuna-Martínez, C.C. et al. Arsenic in the top predators sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) and dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) off the southeastern Gulf of California. Environ Geochem Health 43, 3441–3455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-00836-y

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