Bioaccumulation Pattern of Heavy Metals in Fish Juveniles of Indian Sundarbans

Coastal environment of West Bengal, recognized as the most diversified and productive ecosystem among all the maritime states of India, faces pollution from domestic sewage and urban and industrial effluents leading to serious impacts on biota. These organic and inorganic wastes containing heavy metals mainly originate from the city of Kolkata, Howrah and the newly developing Haldia port-cumindustrial complex. Most abundant heavy metals in the estuarine complex are Zn, Cu and Pb. The present paper aims to highlight the level of these heavy metals in juveniles of ten commercially important species of finfish collected from the aquatic subsystem of western Indian Sundarbans, a Gangetic delta in the north-east coast of the Indian sub-continent. The heavy metals accumulated in the juvenile fish muscles in the order Zn > Cu > Pb. Significant temporal variations of Zn and Cu level in the fish muscles were observed between years, but in case of Pb such variation was not observed. The accumulation of heavy metals in the selected fish muscles exhibited significant species specificity as revealed from the ANOVA results.