Abstract
Due to the growth in population, urban centers and industries along coastal regions, the wastes generated by these reach aquatic environment, which in turn move into the organisms including fishes. Marine fishes act as conduits of potentially toxic heavy metals to the humans. The present study presents the results obtained from heavy metal concentrations found in fishes. The ichthyofaunal samples from fish landing centers located in the coastal city of Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu were collected and analyzed for Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu. The study is based on 69 species of fishes belonging to 14 orders, 63 genera and 50 families. For the heavy metal extraction, all the fish samples were subjected to dissection, drying and acid digestion. Highest concentration of zinc (118.85 ppm) was recorded in Corangoidae family and lowest level of zinc was recorded in Berycidae family. The family Ophichthidae had the highest concentration of Copper (49.425 ppm) and the family Serranidae had the lowest concentration of Copper (0.25 ppm). The family Scorombidae had the highest concentration of Lead (40.075 ppm) and the family Ophichthidae had lowest concentration of Lead (0.975 ppm). The highest concentration of cadmium (4.975 ppm) was recorded in Terapontidae and lowest concentration of Cadmium (0.05 ppm) was noted in the family Synodontidae. From this study, the relative dominance of the heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Zn and Pb) in fish sample was observed in the following sequence: Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd. These results revealed that, the fishes could be good indicators of aquatic environmental pollution and the observed levels of heavy metals were above the limits prescribed by WHO/FAO.
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Rajaram, R., Devendran, S. (2013). Ichthyofauna as a Tool to Assess the Heavy Metal Pollution in the Cuddalore Coast, Southeast India. In: Ramkumar, M. (eds) On a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32917-3_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32917-3_23
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