Greenland halibut samples from five locations surpass the EU’s upper limit for dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs. (Photo: NIFES/ Stock File)

High dioxin levels detected in Greenland halibut

NORWAY
Thursday, April 22, 2010, 02:20 (GMT + 9)

Analyses on environmental pollutants in Greenland halibut by the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) found concentrations of dioxin and dioxin-like PCBs that exceed the European Union’s (EU) upper safety limit.

A total of 1288 Greenland halibut from 27 locations from four areas were collected and examined, with 30-55 fish gathered from each location.

Researchers found that Greenland halibut samples from five locations exceed the EU’s upper limit for dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs. The probability of identifying a sample which exceeds EU’s upper limit for the sum of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs ranges from approximately 6 per cent to 35 per cent contingent on where the fish was caught.

The study contended that the levels of environmental pollutants analysed other than PCBs -- such as arsenic, cadmium and lead -- are generally low in Greenland halibut and thus not a safety concern.

This was a baseline study meant to generate a comprehensive overview of the levels of environmental pollutants in Norwegian seafood fished off the country’s coast.

One of the objectives of such studies on fish is to settle on a strategy for future surveillance of environmental pollutants in a particular species. The results for Greenland halibut suggest that surveillance should be conducted annually and 30 fish should be sampled from a total of 10 locations each time.

Eight sampling locations should be in an area from Vesteraalen and going south, and two locations in the area west of Bjørnøya to Svalbard. These guidelines will make possible spatial and temporal monitoring of the content of mercury and dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs.

Greenland halibut, further, is a central species in the integrated management plan of the marine environments of the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea. The proposed monitoring programme will also sustain the management project already in progress for this region.

Back in January 2006, NIFES was informed of results of analyses conducted by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority in the Netherlands, which found that Greenland halibut from Norwegian waters contained a level of mercury that surpassed EU’s upper limit.

Before that time, NIFES had only studied 50 Greenland halibut from the Norwegian Sea, and the levels of environmental pollutants had been found to be low. Analyses conducted in January-Febuary 2006 and in the early summer of that year, then, detected a demand for a comprehensive monitoring programme, and the baseline survey was initiated in 2006.

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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