Baseline Edited by Bruce J. Richardson T-PAH contamination in Mediterranean mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis, Lamarck, 1819) at various stations of the Turkish Straits System Esra Billur Balcıog ˘lu a,⇑ , Abdullah Aksu b , Nuray Balkıs b , Bayram Öztürk a a Istanbul University, Fisheries Faculty, Marine Biology Department, Laleli, 34130 Istanbul, Turkey b Istanbul University, Institute of Marine Science and Management, Department of Chemical Oceanography, Vefa 34134, Istanbul, Turkey article info Article history: Available online 18 September 2014 Keywords: Mussel PAH Pollution Turkish Straits System Marmara Sea abstract Mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) from the Turkish Straits Systems were analyzed for sixteen parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contents by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This marine organism was selected because of its multitude, wide distribution, being bio indicator for the pollution and consumption by humans. Total PAH concentrations ranged from 1.2 to 589 lgg À1 in Istanbul Strait, 0.94–36.4 lgg À1 in Marmara Sea and 0.4–47.9 lgg À1 in Çanakkale Strait during the sam- plings. According to the results Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits are more polluted than the Marmara Sea. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Among hydrocarbons, PAHs are a wide spread class of environ- mental pollutants that are carcinogenic and mutagenic. They are common environmental micro pollutants (Van der Oost et al., 1991) Most of the PAH inputs in the marine environment are linked to human activity (anthropogenic activity, wastes from industrialized and urbanized areas) (Baumard et al., 1998). Under this consideration, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) classified 16 of them as priority pollutants (Magi et al., 2002; Qiao et al., 2006). Their hydrophobic character and low biodegradability cause accumulation in organisms beyond their concentration levels in the environment (Van der Oost et al., 1988; Oliver and Niimi, 1988; Spies et al., 1988). In 2008, the ICES Marine Chemistry Working Group (MCWG) proposed low concentrations (LCs) for PAHs in shellfish (mussels and oys- ters) (Ehrhardt et al., 1991) and PAHs take part in Compliance Monitoring Criteria for MEDPOL Phase IV as hot spots (EU, 2010). Mussels are filter-feeding bivalves and are therefore mainly exposed to the fraction of contaminant dissolved in the water phase. The lower molecular weight compounds are more water soluble and therefore more available to mussels. These compounds (tri- and tetra aromatics) are generally concentrated at larger levels in bivalve or fish tissues than the heavier molecular weight com- pounds (Porte and Albaige ´ s, 1993). The Turkish Strait System (TSS) including the Istanbul strait, Marmara Sea and Çanakkale Strait has two layer water systems. The salinity of the top layer is 18–25 ppt and bottom layer is 33–38 ppt originating from Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, respectively. Fig. 1 shows the location of Marmara Sea. TSS has been affected by urbanization, by harbour activities, by ship traffic, by commercial fishing and by the pollutants entering from the Black Sea basin (Karacık et al., 2009). T-PAHs were investigated The objective of BASELINE is to publish short communications on different aspects of pollution of the marine environment. Only those papers which clearly identify the quality of the data will be considered for publication. Contributors to Baseline should refer to ‘Baseline—The New Format and Content’ (Mar. Pollut. Bull. 60, 1–2). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.08.034 0025-326X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Marine Pollution Bulletin 88 (2014) 344–346 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul