Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep 21;16(9):e0234534.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234534. eCollection 2021.

Total mercury concentrations in invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) from the Atlantic coast of Florida

Eric G Johnson  1 , Angelina Dichiera  1 , Danielle Goldberg  1 , MaryKate Swenarton  1 , James Gelsleichter  1
Affiliations

Total mercury concentrations in invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) from the Atlantic coast of Florida

Eric G Johnson et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) pose a serious threat to marine ecosystems throughout the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The development of a fishery for lionfish has been proposed as a strategy for controlling populations; however, there is concern about consumption of this species by humans due to its high trophic position and potential for bioaccumulation of mercury. We analyzed total mercury (THg) in tissues of lionfish from two locations on the east coast of Florida. THg in lionfish increased with size and differed by location and sex. THg was highest in muscle tissue and was strongly positively correlated among tissues. THg in lionfish was lower than other commonly consumed marine fishes, and falls into Florida's least restrictive advisory level. Consumption of lionfish poses a low risk and concerns over mercury bioaccumulation should not present a significant barrier to lionfish harvest.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Map of study locations.
Location of lionfish collection sites from northeast (NEF) and southeast (SEF) Atlantic coasts of Florida. The final figure was modified from a base map created using the USGS National Map Viewer (public domain): http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Relationships between lionfish and THg concentration by sex.
Linear regression relationships between size (Standard length) and total mercury concentration for female (solid circles, solid line) and male (open circles, dotted line) lionfish in northeast Florida (A) and southeast Florida (B).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Relationships between lionfish and THg concentration by study location.
Linear regression relationships between size (Standard length) and total mercury concentration in lionfish from NEF (solid circles, solid line) and SEF (open circles, dotted line). The shaded region indicates the sizes (SL > 196 SL) for which lionfish THg was significantly higher (α = 0.05) in SEF than in NEF.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Comparison of THg concentrations in lionfish tissues by sex.
Total mercury concentrations in lionfish tissues in female (solid black bars) and male (solid grey bars) lionfish. Male testes were not sampled (nd). No significant differences were observed for tissues as a function of sex; letters (capitals = females; lower case = males) above tissues represent significant differences from total mercury in tissue types from a Ryan’s Q post-hoc test (see text for details) following ANCOVA.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Relationships in THg concentrations among lionfish tissues.
Relationship among THg (all axes are shown in μg g-1 dw) in various tissues in female (Panels A-F, n = 31) and male lionfish (Panels G-I, n = 26). Coefficients from Pearson canonical correlation analysis (r) are inset within each Panel, significant correlations at α = 0.05 with sequential Bonferroni correction are noted by asterisks (**).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Pimentel D, Zuniga R, Morrison D. Update of the environmental and economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the United States. Ecol Econ. 2005;52:273–288.
    1. Simberloff D, Martin J-L, Genovesi P, Maris V, Wardle DA, Aronson J, et al.. Impacts of biological invasions: what’s what and the way forward. Trends Ecol Evol. 2013;28(1):58–66. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2012.07.013 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wilcox CL, Motomura H, Matsunuma M, Bowen BW. Phylogeography of Lionfishes (Pterois) Indicate Taxonomic Over Splitting and Hybrid Origin of the Invasive Pterois volitans. J Hered. 2018;109(2):162–175. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esx056 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hamner R, Freshwater D, Whitfield P. Mitochondrial cytochrome b analysis reveals two invasive lionfish species with strong founder effects in the western Atlantic. J Fish Biol. 2007;71:214–222.
    1. Freshwater DW, Hines A, Parham S, Wilbur A, Sabaoun J, Woodhead J, et al.. Mitochondrial control region sequence analysis indicate dispersal from the US East Coast as the source of invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans in the Bahamas Mar Biol. 2009;156:1213–1221.

Publication types