Quratulan Ahmed¹ , Levent Bat²

1. The Marine Reference Collection and Resources Centre, University of Karachi, Karachi, 75270 Pakistan
2. University of Sinop, Fisheries Faculty, Department of Hydrobiology, TR57000 Sinop, Turkey
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 21   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0021
Received: 11 Jan., 2015    Accepted: 28 Feb., 2015    Published: 29 Mar., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ahmed and Bat, 2015, Potential risk of some heavy metals in Pampus chinensis (Euphrasen) Chinese silver pomfret Stromateidae collected from Karachi Fish Harbour, Pakistan, International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.5, No.21 1-5 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0021)

Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn and Pb levels were studied in muscle and liver tissues of Pampus chinensis from Karachi Harbour as is the most important fishery area in Pakistan to estimate the potential risk of human consumption. The fish samples were collected monthly from Karachi fishing ports during January-December 2013. Significant differences in metal concentrations were found between different months (P<0.05). Results showed that order of decreasing concentrations was Fe> Zn>Cu>Pb in tissues. The liver metal concentrations showed the highest values, whereas the muscle concentrations were the lowest one. The mean (±SE) concentrations of Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn and Pb in the muscles were 0.95±0.08, 29.32±2.04, 0.13±0.02, 2.28±0.12, 4.00±0.20 and 0.36±0.03 mg/kg; dry wt, respectively. The mean (±SE) liver concentrations of Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn and Pb were 3.08±0.27, 414.30±18.07, 0.85±0.06, 32.75±1.67, 43.24±2.61and 0.77±0.07 mg/kg; dry wt, respectively. None of the metals exceed the threshold limits for fish imposed by European Commission Regulation and other international organizations. This study also demonstrated that estimated daily intakes of selected metals via consumption of fish were below the Permissible Tolerable Daily Intake values established by FAO/WHO.

Heavy metals; Pampus chinensis; Karachi Fish Harbour; Pakistan; Permissible Tolerable Daily Intake