Histopathological Alterations on Antarctic Fish Notothenia Coriiceps and Notothenia Rossii as Biomarkers of Aquatic Contamination

Abstract

e Antarctic continent is considered one of the most well preserved areas of the planet; however, human occupation of this environment, for research purposes, generates impacts on the ecosystem, especially near scienti c stations. Studies on structural alterations, mainly of the liver and gills of sh are an important source of information of environmental toxicity. is work intended to evaluate histopathologically, the livers and gills of the Antarctic sh species Notothenia coriiceps and Notothenia rossii captured in Admiralty Bay, where the Comandante Ferraz Brasilian Antarctica Station is located. Histological and ultrastructure techniques were employed. e only liver diseases found were necroses and hyperplasia, aneurysm and branchial detachment were the diseases found on the gills. e occurrence of alterations, both in the liver and gills, was low and punctual, although with higher incidence in the N. coriiceps than N. rossii. It can be concluded that the low alteration occurrence rate, does not a ect the functionality of the analyzed organs, as it presents no lethality to the species.