Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination and recovery characteristics in some organisms after the Nakhodka oil spill

Following the oil spill from the Russian tanker Nakhodka in 1997 in the Sea of Japan, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were monitored for three years in some molluscs from the Mikuni-cho shore in Japan. Total PAH concentrations in marine organisms except for spiny top shell, ranged from 5.3 to 32.7 ng/g wet weight, but no trends were evident. Total PAH concentration in spiny top shell (Turbo cornutus) was 44 ng/g w.w. in the first month after the oil spill. However, it rapidly decreased to less than 5.4 ng/g w.w. from the second month. Spiny top shell, which was exposed to dietary Nakhodka heavy fuel oil, concentrated benzo(a)pyrene to 17.1 ng/g w.w. after two weeks of exposure and then rapidly eliminated it during an elimination phase. These results suggest that spiny top shell accumulates PAHs because of their low ability to metabolize PAH, but it can excrete parent PAHs rapidly when removed from the source of contamination. Thus it is suitable as an indicator organism in monitoring oil contamination. It can also be inferred from these field and laboratory investigations that, in three years, organisms from the Mikuni-cho shore seem to have adequately recovered from the Nakhodka oil spill contamination.