Bioaccumulation of mercury by the panaeid prawns from Rushikulya estuary, east coast of India

Abstract

Commercially important penaeid prawns namely Penaeus monodon and Penaeus
indicus from the waters of a tropical estuary along the east coast of India were
exposed for 96 hours down to different concentrations of HgCl^ at various salinities.
The accumulation patterns of mercury were analysed at 24-hour interval with
respect to concentrations of 0.005 and 0.01 ppm and salinities of 5, 15 and 25
psu in various body parts such as digestive tract, exoskeleton and muscle of the
organisms. The highest concentrations of mercury was observed in the digestive
tract compared to other body parts and the order of accumulation was found to
be as digestive tract > exoskeleton > muscle with increase in concentrations and
time period for both the species. At salinity of 15 psu Hg content was highest
while 25 psu was the lower than 15 psu but higher than 5 psu salinity indicating
15 psu salinity as a favourable medium for Hg accumulation in each case. P.
monodon was noticed to be more sensitive indicator organism than P. indicus