Concentration of heavy metals in fish juveniles of Gangetic Delta of West Bengal, India.

Abstract

s. Ten years (1999 - 2008) o f observations in the Gangetic delta region in northwestern Bay of Bengal clearly indicate that the heavy metal concentrations in t he commercially important fish juvenile tissue have increased in t he west ern sector ( in t he H ugli estuary), where as in t he ce ntral p art of the deltaic c omplex the picture h as reversed ( in t he Matla estuary). Increased di lution due to H imalayan glacier m elting along with rapid rate of i ndustrialization and urbanization in the western part o f G angetic delta may b e attributed for s uch spatial variation of heavy metals level in t he juveni le f ish tissue. In both the sectors, heavy metals accumulated in the juvenile fish muscles in the order Zn > Cu > Pb.