Water Quality and Heavy metal pollution

in sea fish of the Bay of Bengal along the

Cox’s Bazar coast of Bangladesh

Professor Dr. Md. Abul Mansur

Dean, Faculty of Fisheries
BAU, Mymensingh
 Pollution

Definition:
• The extent of dispoilment of rendering water unfit for human
consumption and unsuitable for aquatic and other important uses is
called pollution. K. F. Lagler
• Pollution is an undesirable change to the physical, chemical and
biological characteristics of water that may or will harmfully affect
human life or that of aquatic life. Odum, E. P.
• Pollution might be defined as adding anything to the water body which
it cannot assimilate and which has deleterious effect such as adverse
changes in the colour, odouror harms the aquatic plants and animals
or affects the health and wellbeing of human. E. S. Iversen
 Pollution (Contd.)

Classes of pollutants: (Connell, J. J. 1980)

1. Metal and elements
2. Organic chemicals
3. Radioactive isotopes
4. Microorganisms
 Pollution (Contd.)

Effect of Water Pollution

1. Increase in osmotic pressure
2. Increase in the acidity
3. Decrease in the oxygen content
4. Destruction of the food organisms
5. Destruction of spawning ground
6. Injury to gill by silt or by other suspended materials
7. Blocking of migration channels
8. Rendering organisms unfit for food
9. Specific toxic compounds
 Physico-chemical parameters of sea water

Sampling area pH Salinity Dissolved Oxygen

PSU (%)
Chera Dwip 7.35 26.95 43
St. Martin’s Island 8.60 27.40 41
Cox’s Bazar 6.64 22.68 50
Chittagong 6.91 15.28 42
Foy’s Lake 8.47 10.50 26
Kaptai lake 7.6 0.11 TDS=98ppm
 Heavy metal concentration in sea water

Sampling area Cd Cr Pb Cu Zn
ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm

Chera Dwip 0.002 0.093 0.018 0.021 0.003

St. Martin’s Island 0.001 0.098 0.051 0.012 0.001
Cox’s Bazar 0.001 0.071 0.030 0.001 0.014
Chittagong 0.002 0.131 0.048 0.038 0.001
Foy’s Lake 0.002 0.007 0.021 0.007 0.004
Kaptai Lake 0.1 0.013 0.014 0.008 0.005
 Heavy metal concentration in sea fish

Species Cd Cr Pb Cu Zn
ppm pmp ppm ppm ppm

MAL→ 1. 0 0.05 2.0 10.00 100.00

Stromateus cinereus 0.32 3.51 1.70 19.39 25.30

Lates calcarifer 0.42 11.28 1.49 26.41 39.77

Harpodon nehereus 0.22 23.01 6.66 8.91 59.50

Cybium guttatum 0.48 7.04 5.32 3.18 29.31

Trichiurus haumela 0.33 9.44 4.18 1.94 22.38

 Cause of heavy metal pollution

1. Waste dump and dumping station

2. Industrial effluent/waste; dock and ship breaking yard
3. Lagoon
4. Sewage disposal
5. Large drains of major cities
6. Low grade feed ingredients in fish and prawn farming.

Fishes are capable of absorbing and concentrating the

pollutants from above sources. Heavy metals are
concentrated in fish muscle by a process called bio-
accumulation.
 Acknowledgement

– Research project entitled “Studies on the Quality and Safety aspect of Fish
and Fishery Products of Bangladesh” conducted by the financial support
of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh; Project No.
2015/13/BAU, from July 2015 to June 2017.
– Research project entitled “Studies on the seasonal variation of nutritional
composition and quality of some important fishes of Bangladesh”
conducted by the financial support of Bangladesh Agricultural University,
Mymensingh. Project No. 2017/284/BAU, from July 2017 to June 2019.

– Publication:
• Mansur, M. A.; S. C. Chakraborty; M. Z. Islam; S. M. Mahfuzar Rahman; A.
K. M. Fazlur Rahman; Shafiqur Rahman; Shoji Uga. (2018). Studies on the
quality and safety aspect of some commercially important marine fishes of the
Bay of Bengal along the Cox’s Bazar coast of Bangladesh. Indian Journal of
Geo Marine Sciences, 47 (09): 1754-1760. (India)