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Fishery and Sea ResourcesFigure 8: Histological section of a M. barbatus testis at stage III (maturing).Sites 1 and 2 showed EROD activitiessignificantly lower than site 3, but theywere however moderately impacted, becausethe values in these sites are stillhigh, compared to those reported in theliterature from Burgeot, [24] (4.9-19.4pmol/min/mg prot) and Corsi [25] (2.5-17.5 pmol/min/mg prot) for areas not industrialized.There were no significant differencesbetween these two sites, probablybecause, although distant from each other(7 Km), both fall within the Gulf of Patti.This closed area, as reflected in the dataprovided by stations of the Air WeatherService of Messina, is characterized bywinds coming mainly from the northwesternquadrant, which at low depth (up to 100meters), are responsible of the South-Eastcurrents insisting on the coast. This causesa movement of water within the Gulf ofPatti that goes from site 1 to site 2.It is known that gonad activity may influenceP450 cytochrome activity in females,as demonstrated by EROD activitydecreasing [49], or being totally inhibited[50] during the spawning season. For thisreason, enzyme activities were assayed inmales, and, as expected, they did not showany significant seasonal differences. Onthe other hand, the size of the fish seems tohave an influence on EROD activity, withsignificantly higher values in larger specimens(¿17 cm). These are older individuals(¿ 1 year), which may have been exposed tocontaminants for a longer time, with consequentincrease of detoxificating activity.GST and UDPGT enzymes, involved inphase II detoxification process, are sensitiveto exposure to PAHs [51, 52]. AlthoughGST and UDPGT activities areused as biomarkers in environmental monitoringprograms, these indicators are lesssensitive than the enzyme activity of phaseI. From the results obtained in this studythe GST and UDPGT activity appearedlower than those reported in the literatureby Regoli et al. [21] and Burgeot et al.[24]. In particular, UDPGT did not change2092