Quratulan Ahmed¹ , Levent Bat² , Farzana Yousuf³

1 The Marine Reference Collection and Resources Centre, University of Karachi, Karachi, 75270, Pakistan
2 Sinop University Fisheries Faculty, Department of Hydrobiology, TR57000 Sinop, Turkey
3 Department of Zoology, University of Karachi, Karachi, 75270, Pakistan
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol. 7, No. 9   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2017.07.0009
Received: 07 Mar., 2017    Accepted: 31 Mar., 2017    Published: 05 Apr., 2017

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 Q., Bat L., and Yousuf F., 2017, Contamination of Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn in Katsuwonus pelamis (Linnaeus, 1758) from Karachi fish harbor and potential risks to human health, International Journal of Marine Science, 7(9): 76-87 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2017.07.0009)

In the present study, skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) from the Karachi coast between 2006 and 2011 were chosen and analyzed for the Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn levels in the edible dorsal tissues, livers, kidney, gills and gonads. The liver tissues had the highest concentrations of metals (623±103 mg kg-1 for Fe, 49±13 mg kg-1 for Mn, 67±17 mg kg-1 for Cu and 68±21 mg kg-1 for Zn). The muscle maximum concentrations of Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn were 46±17, 6±2, 7±2 and 7±2 mg kg-1, respectively. The results revealed that Fe concentrations were higher than those of other metals. The values obtained were compared with the international regulation maximal allowable standards in seafood. The current work attested that calculated diurnal and hebdomadal intakes of Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn levels by way of consumption of skipjack tuna were not in excess of the Permissible Tolerable Daily Intake (PTDI) and Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) values established by FAO/WHO. In conclusion, K. pelamis appears to be useful bioindicator due to their accumulation of the metals and continued sampling and pollution effects on food chain organisms comparatively are required for further investigations.

Heavy metals; Katsuwonus pelamis; Arabian Sea; Karachi; Estimated Daily Intakes