Heavy Metals Accumulation in Five Commercially Important Fishes of Parangipettai, Southeast Coast of India

Investigations on the accumulation of heavy metals five of the most commercially important fishes in the Parangipettai coastal waters were selected and analyzed for the Zn, Pb, Cr, Co and Cd concentrations in the muscles. The results revealed that the Cr and Zn concentrations were the highest; followed by Pb<Cd<Co being the lowest in the five species of fish tissue. The muscle concentrations of Cr, Zn, Pb, Cd and Co ranged from 0.415±0.27-1.168±1.49, 0.103±0.14-0.807±0.13, 0.114±0.14 and 0.006±0.00-0.014±0.00 ppm respectively. A significant species-specific difference was not found. The Anchoviella com mersonii contained higher muscle concentrations of Cd, Co and Pb than the other species of fishes. However, the Upeneus vittatus contained the highest concentrations of Zn and lowest concentration of most of the metals. The metal concentrations found in this study were similar to the metal levels of the fishes collected from pitchavaram mangroves and mudasalodai landing center. Therefore, no public health problem would be raised in the consumption of the fishes.