Distribution and mobility of organic and inorganic mercury in flounder,platichthys flesus, from a chronically polluted area

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Abstract
Flounders, Platichthys flesus, were caught in a mercury polluted area and transferred to clean water. About 6% of the total mercury from recently caught fish was inorganic in the muscle tissue, while about 50% was inorganic in liver and kidney tissue. During 171 days in clean water no loss of mercury from the fillet‐muscle could be seen with certainty, though a net uptake of mercury was observed in the liver after about 4 months. In the same period an increase in the mercury concentration in the kidney tissue and blood cells was observed. A tentative interpretation of the findings is that both organic and inorganic mercury were immobilized within the muscles, from which the two mercury species during the long‐term period of starvation were mobilized and transported via the blood to the liver and kidney, where it accumulated.