Health of Aquatic Ecosystems and Environmental Chemistry

The increasing population growth rate, high development of the industries and the irresponsible uses of aquatic resources, have resulted to serious threats. By the middle of the 20th century, the process of aquatic resources degradation was considered. So, the awareness of the health status of aquatic ecosystems has become more necessary. Pollutants may enter the human body through the consumption of fish and thereby create a serious health hazard. The measurement of contaminants in fish and other marine organisms can be useful to assessing potential health risks to humans as sociated with the consumption of fish. Health risk assessment is defined by the US Environmen tal Protection Agency (USEPA) as the description of the potential adverse health effects of humans as a result of exposure to contaminants (1).The present work shows the use of indicators such as TRIX, UNTRIX, WQI, and Eutrophication Index for the classification of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea waters. Geochemical indices such as Contamination Factor, Index of Geo-accumulation (Igeo), Contamination Degree and Pollution load index, have also been used to assess the marine sediment contamination status(2). In addition, by using the Ecological Risk Factor, the potential risk of aquatic ecosystems has been estimated. Finally, the risk of aquatic biota consumption has been analyzed using the target hazard quotient (THQ).The THQ of all tested metals in the studied species and the HI of all three species were less than 1. Therefore, consumption of the studied fish has no health risk for consumers and, the consumption of up to 4 (kg/d) of Thunnus tonggol by adults and up to 2.2 (kg/d) by children does not cause health problems in terms of the tested heavy metals. For Liza klunzingeri, these levels are 7.32 and 4.02 (kg/d), respectively.