title: Blue sharks (Prionace glauca) as bioindicators of pollution and health in the Atlantic Ocean: Contamination levels and biochemical stress responses.
abstract: Marine ecosystems are constantly being threatened by contaminants produced by human activities. There is an urge to better understand their impacts on marine organisms and develop reliable tools for biomonitoring studies, while also assessing their potential impacts on human health. Given their position on top of food webs, sharks are particularly susceptible to bioaccumulation, making them potential sentinel species of marine contamination. The main objective of this study was to find suitable biomarkers for future marine pollution biomonitoring studies by correlating biochemical responses with tissue contaminant body burden in blue sharks (Prionace glauca), a species heavily caught and consumed by humans, while also addressing their general health. The chemical contaminants analysed comprised different persistent organic pollutants (POPs) families from polychlorinated compounds to brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and different trace and heavy metals. Concentrations of some contaminants in sharks' tissues were found to be above the legally allowed limits for human consumption. A canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was performed and some strong associations were found between biochemical responses and contaminants' accumulation levels. DNA damage and lipid peroxidation levels, as well as the inhibition of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase, were the main effects and consequences of contamination. The impact of contamination on these vital macromolecules underlines the suboptimal conditions of the sampled P. glauca, which can ultimately lead to the degradation of core ecological aspects, such as swimming, feeding, and reproduction. It can be concluded that P. glauca demonstrates great potential to be used as environmental sentinel and suitable biomarker candidates were identified in this work. Moreover, this study also highlights the risks that the consumption of blue shark derived products can pose to human health, which is of upmost interest as the sampled organisms were still juveniles and already presented values above regulatory limits.
authors.affiliation: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, 2520-641 Peniche, Portugal.
authors.forename: Luís M F
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, 2520-641 Peniche, Portugal; LUNAM Université, Oniris, USC 1329, Laboratoire d'Étude des Résidus et Contaminants dans les Aliments (LABERCA), Nantes, France.
authors.forename: Margarida
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.affiliation: LUNAM Université, Oniris, USC 1329, Laboratoire d'Étude des Résidus et Contaminants dans les Aliments (LABERCA), Nantes, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marchand
authors.affiliation: LUNAM Université, Oniris, USC 1329, Laboratoire d'Étude des Résidus et Contaminants dans les Aliments (LABERCA), Nantes, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Le Bizec
authors.affiliation: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, 2520-641 Peniche, Portugal.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mendes
authors.affiliation: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, 2520-641 Peniche, Portugal; Flying Sharks, 9900-361 Horta, Portugal.
authors.forename: João P S
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Correia
authors.affiliation: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, 2520-641 Peniche, Portugal.
authors.forename: Marco F L
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Lemos
authors.affiliation: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ESTM, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, 2520-641 Peniche, Portugal. Electronic address: sara.novais@ipleiria.pt.
authors.forename: Sara C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Novais
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D000074062:Environmental Biomarkers / Q000187:drug effects*; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000378:metabolism*; D011174:Portugal; D012754:Sharks / Q000378:metabolism*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D000074062:Environmental Biomarkers; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Biomarkers; Human health risk; Marine pollution; Oxidative stress; Sharks; Xenobiotics