Appraisal of heavy metal levels in some marine organisms gathered from the Vellar and Uppanar estuaries Southeast Coast of Indian Ocean

摘要

Three marine organisms Mugil cephalus, Portunus pelagicus and Penaeus indicus were gatheredfrom the Vellar and Uppanar estuaries, Southeast Coast of India . Their muscle tissues,gills, gonads, and skin were investigated for the presence of some trace elements,by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry. The results showed that theAluminum concentration level was observed to be greatest in all of the examined marineorganisms followed by Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd. The highest level of Aluminum observed inskin, gonad and gill of mullet fish followed by crab gonad and shrimp muscle respectively.Vellar estuarine organisms showed significantly lower concentrations of heavy metals comparedto organisms obtained from the Uppanar estuary. The minimum level of Cadmiumwas observed in all the tissues of the studied marine organisms. None of the trace metalsinvestigated in Vellar and Uppanar estuaries was over the extreme allowable level endorsedby CODEX.