Heavy Metal Concentrations in Nine Species of Fishes Caught in Coastal Waters off Ann-Ping, S.W. Taiwan

Nine species of the most commonly found fishes in the Ann-Ping coastal waters, were selected and analyzed for the Zn, Fe, Cu, M n and Cd concentrations in the muscles, livers and gonads. The results revealed that the Zn and Fe concentrations were the highes t; followed by Cu and Mn, Cd being the lowest in the three kinds of fish tissues. The liver metal concentrations showed the highest values among the three tissues, whereas the muscle concentrations were the lowest. The muscle concentrations of Zn, Fe, Cu , Mn and Cd ranged 4. 00-7.28, 2.35-7.72, 0.20-0.45, 0.20-0.83 and <0.0005 µg/g wet weight, respectively. The liver concentrations of the five elements were in the range of 23.0-66.6, 131-646, 3.34-48.2, 0.75-1.94, and 0.08-0.70 µg/g wet weight, respectively. A significant species-specific difference was found. The Sardinella lemurucontained higher muscle concentrations of Zn, Mn and Cd than the other species of fishes. However, the Liza macrolepis contained the highest liver concentrations of Fe and Cu. The metal concentrations found in this study were similar to the metal levels of the fishes collected from slightly polluted waters all over the world and Taiwan. Therefore, no public health problem would be raised in the consumption of the fishes.