Abstract
Mercury is a very toxic chemical element and presents a very high level of chemical and biological activity. Long-term emissions of this element into the environment created a global pool of mercury, as a result of mercury forms has been constantly mobilised, deposited and re-mobilised up till now. The continued releases increase the overall values of the global mercury cycle in the air, water, sediments/soil as well as flora and fauna. Port sediments, which containing large deposits of mercury compounds may constitute a potential threat to the marine environment. Moreover harbour basins, which are mainly located in the estuary areas, can be exposed on the pollutants collected by the river flowing through the whole basin area. Furthermore, some contamination can be also supplied to the harbour areas as a result of cargo handling, ship traffic, the discharge of industrial and municipal wastewater etc. These contamination are largely deposited in the benthic sediments. This study summarizes results of mercury concentration in the sediments collected from the marine ports of the Baltic Sea (31 ports). Additionally, it references them to the existing legislation of the individual countries. These data came from the various sources: scientific articles, data submitted by different ports, port-related organisations within the framework of the project SMOCS [35], as well as own research..It has been found differences between each country's legal system. These are related to the different limit values used for the contamination assessment of mercury in port sediments. Another issue is an application of different analytical methodologies in environmental survey. The common analytical methodolody for the determination of mercury compounds together with defined similar limit values for the polluted sediments seems to be extremly important issue in terms of planning as well as managing Baltic Sea port’s sediments
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