Cyanide fishing, which involves the use of a solution of sodium cyanide squirted on and around coral reefs to stun and capture reef fish, is a scourge on the marine aquarium trade. It is also destructive to the reefs where it is used and the surrounding environment. Currently, there is no reliable and universally accepted method to detect if a fish has been exposed to cyanide during the capture process. The use of reversed phase HPLC with a C30 column treated with polyethylene glycol and a UV detector operating at 210 nm is most promising for detecting the thiocyanate ion excreted from exposed fish. However, published results using this method have been varied. This study endeavors to repeat and possibly improve this method for SCN- detection in fish caught with cyanide. Amphiprion ocellaris (common clownfish) will be exposed to 50 ppb aqueous sodium cyanide and held in 1-L tanks. Water will be collected from the tanks of the exposed fish daily and will be analyzed for SCN-. Previous attempts to detect SCN- in exposed fish in our lab have proven unsuccessful; in this study, the brand of salt used to prepare the aquarium water will be changed to test the effect of salt composition on ion detection. Other aspects of the protocol that will be investigated include mobile composition for the HPLC and sampling time after water change. It is hoped that these studies will lead to a reliable, robust and repeatable method for SCN- detection in fish that have been exposed to cyanide, which in turn can be used as a tool to enforce existing anti-cyanide fishing laws and to prevent the import of fish caught using illegal techniques.

Improving a method for detecting fish exposed to cyanide via thiocyante ion excretion using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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