Abstract
Benzophenone-3 (BP-3) is an active ingredient in sunscreen lotions and personal-care products that protects against the damaging effects of ultraviolet rays. Given its worldwide dissemination, it has been linked with harmful effects on aquatic biota; however, its impact is not fully understood calling for further studies. To understand the impacts on an important economically and ecologically species, we evaluated the toxicity of BP-3 during the embryonic development of Octopus maya. Embryos were exposed to increasing concentrations of up to 500 µg BP-3/L until hatching. Antioxidant enzyme activities, oxidative-stress indicators, and B-esterases activities were measured at different developmental phases (organogenesis, activation, and growth). There were no significant differences between treatments, suggesting the lack of production of toxic metabolites that may be related to a protective chorion, an underdeveloped detoxification system, and the experimental conditions that limited phototoxicity.