Abstract
Muscles of 115 North Pacific albacore (ALB, Thunnus alalunga) and 75 Pacific bigeye tuna (BET, Thunnus obesus), collected from 2001 to 2006, were analyzed. No ALB, but 13 large BET had organic mercury (OHg) concentrations exceeding 1μgg−1 wet weight. For both ALB and BET, total mercury (THg) and OHg concentrations were significantly and positively correlated with fork length (FL) and body weight. The muscle Hg bioaccumulation rates of BET were higher than those of ALB, particularly in the adult fish. Moreover, the lines had crossover points among the two species that imply the young BET (FL<110cm) contains lower muscle Hg concentrations than ALB of the same size. The suggested weekly dietary intake of ALB and small-BET meats is 340g, and of BET meat it is 150g for a 60-kg person based on the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of methylmercury set by the WHO.
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