US EPA

4973363 

Technical Report 

Mercury in finfishes and shellfishes inhabiting Ennore Estuary, Madras 

Joseph, KO; Srivastava, JP 

1993 

30 

2 

115-118 

English 

BIOSIS COPYRIGHT: BIOL ABS. The concentration of mercury in some commercially important finfishes and shellfishes from Ennore (India) estuary which receives effluent from a chlor-alkali plant, has been measured. The concentration registered in finfishes (Chanos chanos and Liza macrolepis), prawn (Penaeus indicus) and edible oyster (Crassostrea madrasensis) do not pose an imminent threat to the human consumers or to the biota themselves. The distribution of mercury load exhibited seasonality, the higher values being observed during monsoon period in all the organisms. The mercury level observed in the biota is oyster and gt; prawn and gt; finfishes. The results indicate the suitability of the oyster, C. madrasensis as a sentinel organism for monitoring mercury contamination in estuaries.