สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

«“√ “√ √“™∫— ≥±‘µ¬ ∂“π ªï ∑’Ë Ú˜ ©∫— ∫∑’Ë Ú ‡¡.¬.-¡‘ .¬. ÚıÙı ‡ªïò ¬¡»— °¥‘Ï ‡¡π–‡»«µ ·≈–§≥– Û˜Û Abstract Mercury Contents in Dried Shark Fins in Bangkok Markets Piamsak Menasveta*, Sombat Inkong + , Pimporn Charoensri ✝ *Fellow, the Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institute and the Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, + Aquatic Resources Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, ✝ Unisearch, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand Shark fin currently is popular as a delicacy. This has resulted in an increase of fishing pressure on sharks. However, there is also a concern about the risk of mercury contamination, as previous reports have indicated a high mercury concentration in shark tissue. This investigation was under- taken to determine the level of mercury concentration in dried shark fins randomly sampled in Bangkok markets, using the data obtained for assessing the risk. Mercury concentrations in the shark fins assessed were analyzed by cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results showed that the mean mercury concentration of small size shark fins was signifi- cantly higher than medium size fins (p < 0.01). The mean mercury concentrations in small, medium and large size shark fins were 0.769, 0.162 and 0.465 µg/g dry weight, respectively. It was also found that mercury concentrations in the small size shark fins exceeded the 0.5 µg/g acceptable limit by a high percentage (66.67%), followed by a lower percentage for large size fins (20.00%) and medium size fins (13.33%). Yet, there was no correlation between shark fin size and mercury concentration. The highest mercury concentration, regardless of the size, was 3.55 µg/g (7.1 times greater than the acceptable limit), and the lowest was 0.01 µg/g. The overall mean concentration was 0.465 µg/g approximately 33.5 per cent of the shark fins had mercury contamination exceeding the acceptable limit. Key words : mercury, shark fins