Molekul (Nov 2015)
MERCURY (Hg) CONTENT OF MEAT TILAPIA FISH (Oreochromis niloticus) WERE CULTIVATED IN PALANGKA RAYA CITY
Abstract
Tilapia fish as Palangkarayan food are mostly cultivated in the river which exposed by mercury. To get information whether the fish have been contaminated by mercury, the mercury determination of tilapia fish meat cultivated in Kahayan river was carried out. The fish were analyzed based on age and the cultivation environment that are fishes cages in Kahayan river and isolated pond from streams of Kahayan river) are also studied. The concentration of mercury in the flesh of tilapia with 5-7 months, kept in cages used to identify the content of mercury in fish tilapia cages in Kahayan river. The concentration of mercury in the flesh of tilapia reared in ponds aims to compare the mercury content in the tilapia in ponds the same age were used as comparison. The level of mercury in the samples was measured using a Mercury Analyzer. Data concentration of mercury in the flesh of tilapia were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA: single factor) with a significance level (α) of 5%. The results showed that tilapia fish meat from the cages in the Kahayan river with age of 5-7 months contain mercury as much as 0.0145 ± 0.0005 ppm to 0.017 ± 0.001 ppm, which were lower than the maximum limit of mercury contamination in fish and processed products regulated by ISO 7387 in 2009 of 0.5 ppm. The the analysis of variance showed that the mercury content in tilapia fish meat was different by age and place of cultivation. The content of mercury in the tilapia fish meat increase with the increase of their age. The mercury content in tilapia fish cultivated in the isolated pond lower than that of in the tilapia fish meat cultivated in cages of 0.0115 ± 0.0005 ppm
