ENIVRONMENT ASIA

Volume 13, No. 03, Month SEPTEMBER, Year 2020, Pages 50 - 60

Lead and mercury bioaccumulation in the fish of floating net cage fisheries

Mariana Marselina and Qori Atur R. Suhada

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Saguling Reservoir has multiple roles, and functions principally as a hydroelectric power station. Other roles include supporting the fi sheries and the transportation and tourism sectors. Recently, Saguling Reservoir has been widely used for freshwater fi sheries. These fi sheries have benefi ted from the development of fl oating net cages for fi sh farming in the 1980s. There are now more than 35,000 fl oating net cages business units or plots owned by the community in the Saguling Reservoir area. Heavy metals are among the water quality pollutants in the Saguling Reservoir. Hg and Pb are nonessential trace elements that were reported recently as serious problems in the Saguling Reservoir. These metal contents are thought to contaminate fi sh populations in both fl oating net cage and nonfl oating net cage areas. For example, Hg can have a detrimental eff ect on the human body, involving the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system, as well as having negative eff ects on animal immune and reproduction systems (COWI A/S, 2002). This research was carried out in the Saguling Reservoir precisely at three diff erent sampling points involving nonfl oating net cage stations and two fl oating net cages stations as representative sites for heavy and moderate polluted areas, respectively. Pb and Hg heavy metal analyses were conducted in the water, fi sh, feed, and substrate. The heavy metal analyses were done using inductive coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The processing of heavy metal concentration data in each compartment was carried out using two-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc analysis. The results showed that the mean Pb concentration in sediments was 7.7925 ± 0.8575 mg/kg, which was signifi cantly higher than the Hg concentration. On the contrary, in all fi sh feed brands, the Hg concentration was considerably higher than Pb. Based on the analysis, Pb accumulation in sediments might be strongly enhanced by the upstream waste industry load and leaching from inland agricultural activity, which enters the reservoir. The result showed no signifi cant diff erences in Hg concentrations in fi sh muscle between stations, between the nonfl oating net cage and fl oating net cages treatments. The concentration of Pb and Hg in fi sh muscle was lower than the permissible limit for human consumption set by the Indonesian Government and the World Health Organization.

Keywords

Lead; Mercury; Floating net cage; Reservoir; Water pollution

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