Cadmium and copper levels in seals, penguins and skuas from the Weddell Sea in 1982/1983

Abstract

Samples of muscle, liver and kidney of Weddell and crabeater seals, Adelie and emperor penguins, and McCormick's skuas collected in the Weddell Sea in the summer 1982/83 were analysed for cadmium and copper. In general, the study aimed at contributing to the establishment of base-line data on potential pollutants in Antarctic ecosystems. In particular, it aimed at increasing the amount of data on Cd and Cu levels in the same species that that had been collected and analysed two years eralier, thus improving the possibility of statistical analyses into relationships between metal contents and biological parameters or sampling-sites of the animals, but the data basis is still too small for the letter purpose. In all species together, concentration ranges (on dry weight basis) were 0.16–0.77, 3.7–96.8 and 15.6–491 mg cadmium and 1.6–21.4, 14.9–149 and 12.6–47.7 mg copper per kg in muscles, livers and kidneys, respectively. The relatively high levels of both metals in all species analysed, in connexion with the available literature, suggest that levels in marine mammals and birds can only, if at all, to a minor extent reflect differences in environmental concentrations of these metals.