RESPONSE OF FISH TO METAL POLLUTION ALONG THE EGYPTIAN COAST

Abstract

Heavy metals considered as one of the most insidious and dangerous category of pollutants in the sea which enter the aquatic environment from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Metal contamination of aquatic environment may lead to deleterious effects from localized inputs which may be acutely or chronically toxic to aquatic life within the effected area. Most published data on the effects of metals on aquatic organisms, however, report adverse effects at concentrations higher than usually found in the environment. Metals are often accumulated in the tissues of organs which have taken them up, and this leads to an amplification of the concentration of them in animals higher up to food chain. Not only do heavy metals constitute a direct threat to public health, they are a broad contaminants and its control is extremely difficult.

This work aimed to study the variation of metals in the tissues of commercial fish collected from different sites along the Egyptian coast, and their response to pollution in the sites. To manage the problem of metals accumulation in fish, depuration patterns were studied in a long-term experiments.