News in Press-centre

Scientists of Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) have discovered pesticides in organisms of large marine inhabitants of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Harmful substances reach the Arctic from the southern latitudes along with air masses and animals are exposed to them by food consumption. These conclusions, made during the ecotoxicological study of the fauna of the Far Eastern seas, will improve the technologies for controlling the safety of fish products. Samples of marine organisms were collected during the expeditions of TINRO Center.

Vasily Tsygankov, Associate Professor, Department of Food Science and Technology, Head of the Laboratory of Food Biotechnology and Pharmaconutrition, FEFU School of Biomedicine, has been studying organochlorine pesticides (metabolites of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane) in the Far East environment for several years. In recent research, substances were found in organisms (in muscles and liver) of walruses and gray whales from the Bering Sea. Scientists explain that pesticides have fallen into the northern waters along with air flows from South Asia, where they are used to fight malaria.

"The main goal of the research is to reveal the patterns of toxic substance distribution in the body and between organisms at the trophic level. The observations show: the higher is the position of the animal in the food chain, the more pesticides it accumulates. For example, we found a significant amount of substances in birds of the Sea of Okhotsk, which feed on fish," explained Vasily Tsygankov.

The scientist is sure that in practice these results can be used to improve the quality control of fish products. Several species of salmon have already been studied, and it has been found as a result that the most harmful substances are collected by the liver and milt. The amount of pesticides also depends on the age of the fish. Currently, scientists are studying Far Eastern flounder.

"Studies show that the content of pesticides in Far Eastern fish does not exceed the permissible standards. Nevertheless, the presence of harmful substances indicates that quality control of fish products is necessary. We hope that our results will be used to update sanitary standards and to create new quality standards," said Vasily Tsygankov.

A unique for the Far East team of expert scientists has developed in FEFU in the process of working on the topic. Olga Lukyanova, Professor, School of Natural Sciences (SNS), Lead Researcher, TINRO Center, Nadezhda Khristoforova, Professor, Head of the SNS UNESCO Chair in Marine Ecology, and Vasily Tsygankov, Associate Professor, take part in the research. The laboratory facilities are provided by the Ocean Test Center of the School of Engineering under the guidance of Professor Yuri Prikhodko with the participation of Margarita Boyarova, Associate Professor, School of Biomedicine.

The research is carried out under the comprehensive program of the Russian Science Foundation in the field of 'Modern technologies for controlling various types of anthropogenic pollution of the aquatic environment and assessing their impact on marine biological resources'. The results have been published in a series of articles in the following leading journals: Chemosphere, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Journal of Ichthyology, and Russian Journal of Marine Biology.