Abstract

Domoic acid (DA) is one of the toxins monitored in the Magellan region (48° - 55° S) by LC-DAD since 1997, at levels ranging between non-detectable and trace. However, in November 2015, DA levels up to 20 μg g-1 were detected in ribbed mussels (Aulacomya atra) at a monitoring station in Ringdove estuary, (49°46’ S, 74°19’ W). A fortnight after this, DA was also detected by liquid chromatography with diode-array detector and liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy in fractionated plankton (20-200 μm), and below the regulatory limit in ribbed and blue (Mytilus chilensis) mussels (0.74 and 1.52 μg g-1, respectively), both from Madre de Dios Island (50°20’ S, 75°21’ W), a more oceanic area. DA is commonly detected in scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) from low latitudes (27° S) and in blue mussels from the northern Chilean fjords (41°- 46° S). This finding of DA in areas with little or no human influence such as the Subantarctic channels and fjords, lead to consider that 2015-2016 was not only the year of dinoflagellates and Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning at the Chilean coast, but also suggested that these pennate diatoms may also have been involved in HAB events during the spring, but were unnoticed in the Magellan region mainly due to restricted access to these remote oceanic areas.