Diclidophora merlangi (Kuhn, 1829) Krøyer, 1838 (Monogenea: Diclidophoridae) as an indicator of hydrocarbon pollution in the North Sea

Hayley Sue, Ken MacKenzie* (Corresponding Author), Stephen C Ives, Campbell C Pert, Catherine S Jones

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study presents the results of analyses of data on infections of 2646 whiting Merlangius merlangus with the monogenean Diclidophora merlangi. All fish were caught in the North Sea and off the north coast of Scotland in 1990, 1993 and 1995. The aims were to analyse these data in relation to the locations of whiting sampling stations and oil installations active at that time, and to evaluate the results in terms of D. merlangi as an indicator of hydrocarbon pollution. Mean abundance of D. merlangi increased significantly with increasing proximity to the nearest oil field, with an accelerated rate of increase within approximately 2 km of the oil field. Age of oil field and whiting length showed no significant effect on parasite abundance, but there was a small difference between years. The results support those of previous studies in demonstrating the value of monogeneans as indicators of hydrocarbon pollution.

Original languageEnglish
Article number114268
JournalMarine Pollution Bulletin
Volume185
Issue numberPart A
Early online date4 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
We thank the crews and scientific staff on the cruises of FRS Scotia during which these samples were collected. We are grateful to Dr Coby Needle of Marine Scotland for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript, and to the anonymous reviewer for his constructive comments. We wish to dedicate this study to the memory of Dr H.H. Williams, whose original idea it was to investigate D. merlangi as an indicator of hydrocarbon pollution.

Data Availability Statement

Data will be made available on request.

Keywords

  • Diclidophora merlangi
  • Whiting
  • Hydrocarbon pollution
  • North Sea

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