Sedimentary Environments of the Inshore Pemangkat Region Sambas, West Kalimantan

Increasing fisheries products through industrialisation with emphasizing on marine aquaculture development requires supporting data on marine environments including seafloor sediments. Research on sedimentary environments of the inshore of Pemangkat region was aimed to obtain seafloor sediment composition, heavy metal and total suspended solid (TSS) concentrations. Some surface sediments samples were collected in transects across the selected Pemangkat coast and analysed following the procedure of granulometric analysis, whilst AAS (Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy) was applied to determine heavy metal concentrations (e.g. Hg, Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn). Additionally, water samples were also collected using Nansen bottle to derive TSS concentrations. This sort of information will be valuable for manager and/or local government to assess, plan and manage coastal zone and marine environment. A standard of water quality issued by the State Ministry for Environment was then used as a reference to calibrate the results. This study showed silt (mud) sediment dominance and high TSS concentrations, indicating that the inshore Pemangkat region was not highly recommended for marine aquaculture development.