364 J. Seo et al.: Radioprotection 2025, 60( 4), 360 – 369 Fig. 2. Distributions of 137 Cs activity in muscle tissue of each fish species according to body length.
and mackerel( 1.49 kg y �1). For armored weaselfish and conger, with no specific intake data, the average annual intake values for fishes were used: 1.38 kg y �1 for armored weaselfish( reported values in 2021) and 1.30 kg y �1 for conger( reported values in 2022).
3 Results
3.1 Activity of 137 Cs in fishes
All results in this study were calculated based on wet weight and expressed as mean ± standard deviation( 1s), unless otherwise specified. For small-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities in the muscle were 100 ± 8, 198 ± 17, 105 ± 14, and 46 ± 12 mBq kg �1( mean ± s. d.) in armored weaselfish, croaker, catfish, and conger, respectively( Figure 2). In the medium-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities were 269 ± 23, 120 ± 9, 137 ± 16, 104 ± 21, 202 ± 51, 58 ± 15, and 135 ± 21 mBq kg �1 in armored weaselfish, croaker, flounder, hairtail, catfish, conger, and mackerel, respectively. In the large-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities were 186 ± 10, 50 ± 10, 104 ± 11, 118 ± 16, 167 ± 21, and 127 ± 18 mBq kg �1 in armored weaselfish, croaker, flounder, hairtail, catfish, and mackerel, respectively. The highest activity of 137 Cs were observed in the medium-sized armored weaselfish( 269 ± 23 mBq kg �1), small-sized croaker( 198 ± 17 mBq kg �1), medium-sized flounder( 137 ± 16 mBq kg �1), large-sized hairtail( 118 ± 16 mBq kg �1), medium-sized catfish( 202 ± 51 mBq kg �1), medium-sized conger( 58 ± 15 mBq kg �1), and medium-sized mackerel( 135 ± 127 mBq kg �1). These values are comparable to those observed for various marine products from the seas around Korea, which range from < 22 to 288 mBq kg �1, as measured by the from 2017 to 2022( KINS, 2023).
The 137 Cs activity in other dissected body parts( skin, intestine, gill, and gonad) of the fish ranged from 29 to 311 mBq kg �1( Fig. 3). In the skin of small-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities were 70 ± 13 mBq kg �1, 101 ± 33 mBq kg �1, 83 ± 33 mBq kg �1, 49 ± 24 mBq kg �1, 111 ± 45 mBq kg �1 in armored weaselfish, croaker, flounder, catfish, and conger, respectively. In medium-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities in the skin were 141 ± 24 mBq kg �1, 68 ± 16 mBq kg �1, 78 ± 19 mBq kg �1, 79 ± 25 mBq kg �1 in armored weaselfish, croaker, flounder, and mackerel with values of, respectively. In large-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities in the skin were 79 ± 14 mBq kg �1, 56 ± 16 mBq kg �1, 113 ± 37 mBq kg �1, 63 ± 59 mBq kg �1, 29 ± 17 mBq kg �1, in armored weaselfish, croaker, flounder, catfish, and mackerel.
In the intestine of small-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities in croaker, flounder, catfish, conger, and mackerel were 55 ± 11 mBq kg �1, 107 ± 29 mBq kg �1, 56 ± 27 mBq kg �1, 279 ± 50 mBq kg �1, respectively( Fig. 3). For medium-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities in the intestine in armored weaselfish, hairtail, and conger were 52 ± 16 mBq kg �1, 73 ± 33 mBq kg �1, 64 ± 15 mBq kg �1, respectively. For large-sized fishes, the 137 Cs activities in the intestine were 90 ± 18 mBq kg �1 in armored weaselfish and 78 ± 14 mBq kg – 1 in mackerel.
In the gills, 137 Cs activity was observed in small-sized( 311 ± 43 mBq kg �1) and large-sized( 254 ± 65 mBq kg �1) catfish, in addition to large-sized mackerel( 145 ± 24 mBq kg �1). In the gonad part, the 137 Cs was only observed in large-sized hairtail, at 74 ± 36 mBq kg �1. The activities of 137 Cs measured in the skin, intestine, and gonads were observed to be in a similar