Mercury content in fish from drinking-water reservoirs in the Morava River Basin (Czech Republic)

This study focused on the total mercury content in fish from seven drinking-water reservoirs located in the Morava River Basin: Bojkovice, Boskovice, Hubenov, Karolinka, Landstejn, Ludkovice and Nova Rise in the Czech Republic. A total of 308 fish were collected for the analysis. The content of total mercury was measured in the muscle tissue of bream, roach and perch using atomic absorption spectrometry and varied from 0.057±0.009 to 0.440 mg kg −1 in bream, from 0.030±0.005 to 0.393±0.138 mg kg −1 in roach and from 0.092±0.007 to 0.638±0.042 mg kg −1 in perch. The highest total mercury content was found in perch from Landstejn and the lowest was measured in roach from Ludkovice. A positive statistically significant relationship was found between fish weight and total mercury content in fish muscle for almost all species and all sampling sites, except for roach from Ludkovice. A total of 19 samples exceeded the maximum mercury level set by legislation on food contaminants—0.5 mg kg −1 in freshwater fish.