Mercury in Groupers and Sea Basses from the Gulf of Mexico: Relationships with Size, Age, and Feeding Ecology
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract We analyzed total mercury concentration in muscle tissue of 15 serranid species (n = 1,401 fish) collected from the Gulf of Mexico and also developed a comprehensive model relating two commonly used mercury analysis methods. There was considerable interspecific and intraspecific variability in mercury within groupers and sea basses. Mean mercury concentration for individual species ranged from 0.03 to 0.91 mg/kg wet weight across all size ranges, and for legally harvestable grouper and sea bass concentrations were 0.32 mg/kg and 0.09 mg/kg, respectively. Mercury in individual fish ranged from 0.01 to 3.3 mg/kg. Approximately 23% of all grouper samples analyzed contained mercury at concentrations that exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's methylmercury consumption guidance criterion for humans (0.3 mg/kg). Mercury in legally harvestable individuals of some species exceeded 0.5 mg/kg, and harvestable black grouper Mycteroperca bonaci had a mean mercury concentration greater than 1.0 mg/kg. A positive relationship was observed between total mercury content and both fish length and fish age. For species that feed principally on fishes (e.g., gag M. microlepis and scamp M. phenax), mean mercury concentration was greater than that for species that feed mainly on invertebrates (e.g., red grouper Epinephelus morio and sand perch Diplectrum formosum). Although overall mean mercury concentrations were relatively low, for six species the maximum mercury concentration was at a level that has been associated with sublethal effects on fish physiology and with human health risks. Current grouper management regulations in the Gulf of Mexico select for a fishery of the largest and oldest individuals, which have the greatest mercury burdens. The species‐ and size‐specific mercury data from this study can be used to inform at‐risk human populations, refine regional fish consumption advisories, and further our understanding of mercury bioaccumulation in these important fishery species.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".