Table 3.

Total mercury levels in marine fish sampled from the LKIM complexes and wholesale market in Peninsular Malaysia

No.	Groups/family/species	Common name	Number	Total mercury (mg/kg dry weight (DW))
				Median	IQR	Min	Max	Range
	Pelagic fish
	Carangidae (80)
1	Selaroides leptolepis	Yellowstripe scad	13	0.252	0.125	0.138	2.137	1.999
2	Selar boops	Oxeye scad	3	0.555	–	0.305	0.719	0.414
3	Selar crumenopthalmus	Bigeye scad	1	0.298	–	–	–	–
4	Atule mate	Yellowtail scad	4	0.458	0.304	0.371	0.746	0.375
5	Caranx sexfasciatus	Bigeye trevally	1	0.293	–	–	–	–
6	Seriola dumerili	Greater amberjack	1	0.203	–	–	–	–
7	Decapterus kurroides	Redtail scad	4	0.272	0.263	0.186	0.535	0.349
8	Decapterus muruadsi	Round scad	7	0.317	0.171	0.173	0.535	0.362
9	Decapterus russelli	Slender scad	10	0.195	0.108	0.078	0.304	0.226
10	Decapterus macrosoma	Shortfin scad	1	0.354	–	–	–	–
11	Megalaspis cordyla	Torpedo scad	20	0.319	0.198	0.202	0.913	0.711
12	Parastromateus niger	Black pomfret	15	0.242	0.121	0.158	0.518	0.360
		Total	80	0.291	0.153	0.078	2.137	2.059
	Scrombidae (97)
13	Rastrelliger kanagurta	Indian mackerel	13	0.180	0.066	0.055	0.454	0.399
14	Rastrelliger faughni	Faughn’s mackerel	6	0.357	0.246	0.254	0.753	0.499
15	Rastrelliger brachysoma	Indo-Pacific mackerel	3	0.261	–	0.258	0.332	0.074
16	Scomber australasicus	Blue mackerel	18	0.269	0.065	0.152	0.610	0.458
17	Scomberomorus guttatus	Indo-Pacific king mackerel	12	0.262	0.355	0.159	0.983	0.824
18	Scomberomorus commerson	Narrowbarred Spanish mackerel	14	0.368	0.953	0.153	1.378	1.226
19	Gymnosarda unicolor	Dogtooth tuna	10	0.342	0.456	0.216	1.518	1.302
20	Sarda orientalis	striped bonito	6	0.543	1.048	0.200	0.179	1.592
21	Thunnus tonggol	Longtail tuna	8	0.358	0.173	0.178	0.565	0.387
22	Auxis thazard thazard	Frigate tuna	2	0.237	–	0.207	0.266	0.059
23	Euthymus affinis	Kawakawa	5	0.289	–	0.226	0.322	0.096
		Total	97	0.293	0.190	0.055	1.792	1.737
	Demersal fish
	Lutjanidae (24)
24	Lutjanus argentimaculatus	Mangrove red snapper	3	0.856	–	0.317	0.950	0.633
25	Lutjanus gibbus	Humpback red snapper	1	0.436	–	–	–	–
26	Lutjanus sebae	Emperor red snapper	11	0.334	0.516	0.173	1.810	1.637
27	Lutjanus malabaricus	Malabar blood snapper	5	0.413	0.366	0.290	0.723	0.433
28	Lutjanus russellii	John’s snapper	4	1.366	–	–	–	–
		Total	24	0.465	0.566	0.173	2.666	2.493
	Latidae (15)
29	Lates calcarifer	Giant sea perch	11	0.537	0.436	0.255	1.408	1.153
30	Psammoperca waigiensis	Waigeu sea perch	4	0.532	0.165	0.398	0.601	0.203
		Total	15	0.537	0.267	0.255	1.408	1.153
	Dasyatidae (25)
31	Himantura gerrardi	Sharpnose stingray	10	0.384	0.741	0.206	1.432	1.226
32	Neotrygon kuhlii	Bluespotted stingray	7	0.492	1.251	0.226	2.537	2.311
33	Dasyatis zugei	Pale-edged stingray	5	0.548	0.509	0.233	0.905	0.672
34	Himantura uarnak	Honeycomb stingray	3	0.425	–	0.204	2.517	2.313
		Total	25	0.492	0.740	0.204	2.537	2.333
	Sciaenidae (25)
35	Chrysochir aureus	Reeve’s croaker	3	0.498	–	0.282	0.733	0.451
36	Otolithoides ruber	Tigertooth croaker	6	0.421	0.423	0.283	0.775	0.492
37	Nibea soldado	Soldier croaker	15	0.424	0.132	0.181	1.227	1.046
38	Otolithoides biauritus	Bronze croaker	1	0.069	–	–	–	–
		Total	25	0.424	0.217	0.069	1.227	1.158
	Nemipteridae (31)
39	Nemipterus bathybius	Yellowbelly threadfin bream	6	0.383	0.328	0.263	0.753	0.490
40	Nemipterus japonicus	Japanese threadfin bream	11	0.464	0.724	0.213	1.206	0.993
41	Nemipterus furcosus	Forktail threadfin bream	3	0.642	–	0.371	0.918	0.547
42	Nemipterus thosaporni	Threadfin bream	4	0.570	0.659	0.402	1.244	0.842
43	Nemipterus tambuloides	Fivelined threadfin bream	2	0.426	–	0.397	0.454	0.057
44	Nemipterus nematophorus	Doublewhip threadfin bream	2	1.211	–	0.858	1.563	0.704
45	Nemipterus marginatus	Red filament threadfin bream	2	0.244	–	0.207	0.281	0.074
46	Nemipterus nemurus	Redspine threadfin bream	1	0.298	–	–	–	–
		Total	31	0.454	0.459	0.207	1.563	1.356

Comparison of mercury levels for different fish species: χ ²_KW = 109.596, p = 0.000

IQR interquartile range