Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in eight fish species of the Khur-e Khuran International Wetland in the Persian Gulf, Iran

Abstract

Heavy metals are among the most toxic pollutants in aquatic ecosystems. This study was conducted to evaluate the concentration of heavy metals viz. lead, cadmium, chromium, zinc, cobalt, and copper in eight commercial fishes of Khur-e Khuran international wetland (KIW), Iran. The results showed that the highest concentration of heavy metals attributed to Zn as 176.5 µg g -1 dry weight in Platycephalus indicus and the lowest to Pb as 0.12 µg g -1 dry weight in Sillago sihama . Average concentrations of heavy metals in eight examined fish species were 29.15, 49.73, 1.39, 0.45, 1.43 and 1.56 µg g -1 dry weight for Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, Co and Cr, respectively. The results also show that measured values of most heavy metals in some examined fishes of KIW were higher than those maximum permissible limit (MPL) according to international standards. The high concentrations of some metals in some examined fishes of KIW may be due to industrial and residential activities in adjacent coast i.e. in mainland and Qeshm Island, and marine traffic