Development stage and season influence in the metal content of small pelagic fish in the North-West Africa

Marine organisms are exposed to great changes caused by man due to discharges into the oceans, so the study of marine pollution is of great value for each ecosystem. For this study, 963 specimens of pelagic fish have been collected, of which 345 are Scomber colias, 294 are Trachurus picturatus and 324 are Sardina pilchardus, it was wanted to study the development and ontogeny in the three species observing if there were variations in their metallic content. The study covered a total of 2 years, from June 2016 to May 2018.16 samples of each species were studied each month, during the 2 years of sampling, from the samplings carried out by the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center of the Spanish Institute Oceanography (COC-IEO) in the markets of the Island of Tenerife. The concentration of 11 anthropic metals was determined in each sample using the Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) technique. Statistical studies were carried out with factors such as the oceanographic season, and the level of maturity of the gonads. S. colias was the species that presented the highest concentration in a greater number of metals. S. pilchardus presents higher concentration in Cu, Li and Zn, in the warm season. These are metals of a very anthropic character on coasts; This species tends to get closer to the coasts compared to the other two and is the cause of its higher concentration in these metals due to the influence of pollution linked to the coast. The immature specimens of the three species had a higher concentration in more metals than the mature specimens.