the Science of the -IbtalEnvIrolltnent F : TheScience of the TotalEnvironment ZOl(1997) 211-224 Heavy metal contamination in freshwater fish from the border region between Norway and Russia Per-Arne Amundsenat* , Frode J. Staldvik”, Anatolij A. Lukinb, Nikolai A. Kashulinb, Olga A. Popova”, Yuri S. Reshetnikov” “Norwegian College of Fishery Science, Universi~ of Troms& N-9037 Trams@, Norway hlnstitute of North Ecological Industrial Problems, Kola Science Center, 14 Fersman Str., Apatity, Murmansk Region, Russia ‘A.N. Severtzov Institute of Ecology and Animal Morphology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Received 12 February 1997; accepted 8 April 1997 Abstract The contentsof Cd, Cu, Cr, Hg, Ni and Zn in muscle, liver and gills were studiedin whitefish, perch, pike, brown trout, burbot and vendace from three iake localities in a watercoursein the border region between Norway and Russia, in the vicinity of mining activity and severalmetallurgic smelters. The contents of Cd and Ni in fish tissue increased with increasing proximity to the smelters, whereas the other elements showed similarconcentrations at the three localities. The recorded heavy metal concentrations appearedto be within the rangesreported for fish from other metal-contaminated lakes,and higher than comparable observations from unpolluted systems. The heavy metal concentrationswere usually lowest in muscleand highest in the liver or the gills. Significant differences in metal concentration levels were found between different fish species, but Hg was the only metal where these species differences were possibly related to biomagnification. For the other elements, the concentrations generally appeared to be inversely related to the trophic level of the fish species. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. Keywords: Heavy metals; Freshwaterfish; Pasvik River system; Norway; Russia ___ 1. Introduction Emission of heavy metals from mining activity, smelters and industry is the source of serious *Corresponding author. environmental pollution (Kelly, 1988). In aquatic ecosystems, heavy metals have received consider- able attention due to their toxicity and accumula- tion in biota (Mance, 1987; Mason, 1991). Some of these elements are toxic to living organisms even at quite low concentrations, whereas others are biologically essential and natural constituents 0048-9697/97/$17.00 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PI1 SOO48-9697(97>00125-3