EN
Total mercury content of three fish species (cod, herring, sprat) has been determined. Fish samples were wet mineralised in a totally closed system to avoid evaporation losses of volatile mercury compounds. In the earlier samples, mercury (in the form of dithizones) was determined by spectrophotometry. Since 1997, cold vapour ASA was used to determine mercury content of the samples. The detected total mercury levels ranged from 0.5 mg Hg/100g (cod) to 19.6 mg Hg/100g (herring), which was within the maximum levels admissible in Poland. A slight increase in the total mercury content was noted for the 1997 samples.