{"id":6308,"date":"2019-11-01T09:44:46","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T06:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6308"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:39","slug":"we-studied-mercury-levels-in-cape-monkfish-off-namibias-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/01\/we-studied-mercury-levels-in-cape-monkfish-off-namibias-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"We Studied Mercury Levels In Cape Monkfish Off Namibia\u2019s Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By<\/strong> <strong>Victoria\nNdinelago Erasmus<\/strong> &amp; <strong>Johannes Angala Iitembu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\npresence of mercury in the marine environment is becoming an issue of concern.\nOnce in the ocean mercury is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/14757716\">converted<\/a>&nbsp;into a\nmore toxic compound known as methylmercury. In this form it\u2019s absorbed by the\ndigestive tract of creatures at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pdfs.semanticscholar.org\/c178\/fcd7e6fe4db6d76db9b211249f5e3d54207e.pdf?_ga=2.73234325.761941332.1571749086-1262164574.1569500172\">all\nfeeding levels<\/a>&nbsp;in the marine ecosystem. In fish, reduced swimming\nactivity, loss of balance, and possibly death have been linked to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0022098196025907\">mercury\ncontamination<\/a>. Mercury has a very low rate of breakdown and excretion,\nwhich means it builds up \u2013 in a process known as bioaccumulation \u2013 through the\nentire food chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\nconducted&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/30301008\">research<\/a>&nbsp;to\nestablish the levels of mercury in Cape monkfish, a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.2989\/18142320509504090\">commercially\nimportant fish species<\/a>&nbsp;off the Namibian coast. This species also plays\na&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/BF00004906\">key\necological role<\/a>&nbsp;in the marine ecosystem. It feeds on other fishes and\nso regulates various fish populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\ntwo conditions in which we found higher levels of mercury concentration were in\nlarger fish and in fish in deeper waters. Some fish (0.57%) had higher levels\nof mercury above the World Health Organisation limit of 0.5mg\/kg. However, most\nof the fish had mercury levels still below the World Health Organisation limit\nof 0.5mg\/kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our\nfindings are important because although the Cape monkfish isn\u2019t currently a\nrisk to humans who eat it, this may change because of future industrial\ndevelopment in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/we-studied-mercury-levels-in-cape-monkfish-off-namibias-coast-125585\">Read\nmore\u2026<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Victoria Ndinelago Erasmus &amp; Johannes Angala Iitembu The presence of mercury in the marine environment is becoming an issue of concern. Once in the ocean mercury is&nbsp;converted&nbsp;into a more&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}