Abstract
It has been suggested that industrial waste discharges are associated with the occurrence of fin damage and skin lesions. A mixed population of diseased and healthy blatfish consisting ofLimanda limanda, Pleuronectes platessa, Platichthys flesus andSolea solea were collected from an industrialised area (Calais, France) and were compared with diseased and healthyl. limanda caught in a non-industrialised area (Brixham, England). Analysis of skin samples from necrosed and healthy fish by X-ray microanalysis and atomic absorption spectroscopy has shown that no elemental accumulation occurs either in necrosed fish, or fish from an industrialised area. The fish from Calais were heavily infested with the ectoparasitic copepodLepeophtheirus pectoralis (O.F. Müller) and, although few were found on fish from Brixham, it is unlikely that this infestation was related to the discharge of industrial effluents.
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Newell, P.F., Appleton, T.C., Brown, B.E. et al. Elemental distribution in relation to skin necroses of marine flatfishes from the english channel. Marine Biology 51, 93–99 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00555188
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00555188