mercury pollution for marine environment at farwa island, libya

Background: farwa is an island in libya receives petrochemical wastes generated from general company of chemical industries (gcci) since more than 40 years. aim: the present work aimed to determine the concentrations of mercury (hg+2) in fish, marine plants and sediment collected from farwa lagoon to evaluate effect of industrial wastewater from gcci on the marine environment. methods: hundred and twelve samples of fish, pearl oyster, cuttlefish sediments and marine plants were analyzed to determine hg2+ concentration during the period from january to august 2014 by using atomic absorption spectrometer (aas). results: the highest concentration of hg2+ was detected in pinctada radiata (11.67±3.30 ?gg?1) followed by serranus scriba (6.37±0.11 ?gg ?1) and epinephelus marginatus (6.19±0.02 ?gg ?1). about 75 % of marine plants contained the maximum contaminations during the summer season. in fish samples hg2+ concentrations exceeded the levels provided by international standards. conclusions: the fish at farwa lagoon is heavily contaminated with hg2+ which may represent a source for mercury poisoning for human.