Heavy Metal Levels in Commercial Fishes Caught in the southern Black Sea coast

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the levels of seven heavy metals (arsenic, copper, zinc, mercury, lead, cadmium and iron) and metal (aluminium,) in the edible tissues of Scophthalmus maximus, Spicara maena, Chelidonichthys lucerna, Alosa fallax and Scorpaena porcus caught in Sinop coasts of the Black Sea. The samples were obtained during the fishing season in 2013 directly from the Turkish fishing vessels. Hg, Cd and Pb were not detected in the edible part of all fish samples. The metal levels in edible tissues did not exceed the standard guideline values. Estimated hazard index (HI) suggest that these metals in the edible tissues of the fish were not toxic for consumers, where the HIs of all the considered metals were below the value of 1.

Keywords

• Black Sea
• heavy metals
• estimated daily intake (EDI)
• hazard quotient (HQ)
• hazard index (HI)