Baseline Determination of mercury and vanadium concentration in Johnius belangerii (C) fish in Musa estuary in Persian Gulf Neamat Jaafarzadeh Haghighi Fard a,b , Maryam Ravanbakhsh b,g,⇑ , Zahra Ramezani c,d , Mehdi Ahmadi a,b , Kambiz Ahmadi Angali e , Ahmad Zare Javid f a Environmental Technology Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran b Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz 15794-61357, Iran c Nanotechnology Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran d Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran e Department of Biostatistics, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran f Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran g Student Research Committee, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran article info Article history: Received 27 January 2015 Revised 5 May 2015 Accepted 13 May 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Mercury Vanadium Johnius belangerii (C) fish Persian Gulf Musa estuary abstract The main aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of mercury and vanadium in Johnius belangerii (C) fish in the Musa estuary. A total of 67 fishes were caught from the Musa estuary during five intervals of 15 days in the summer of 2013. After biometric measurements were conducted, the concen- trations of mercury and vanadium were measured in the muscle tissue of fish using a direct method analyzer (DMA) and a graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometer, respectively. The mean concentration of mercury and vanadium in the muscle tissue of fish was 3.154 ± 1.981 and 2.921 ± 0.873 mg/kg w.w, respectively. The generalized linear model (GLM) analysis showed a signifi- cantly positive relationship among mercury concentration, length, and weight (P = 0.000). In addition, there was a significantly negative relationship between vanadium concentration and fish length (P = 0.000). A reverse association was found between concentrations of mercury and vanadium. Mercury concentration exceeded the allowable standards of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in J. belangerii (C). Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The Persian Gulf is a shallow basin area spanning 240,000 km 2 with an average depth of 35–40 m (Mortazavi and Sharifian, 2011b), located to the south of Iran (Elahi et al., 2012). It joins free international waters via the Hormuz Strait. Pollutants may persist longer in the Persian Gulf due to factors such as low turnover and flushing time (3–5 years), shallow depth, limited circulation, high salinity, high temperature, and evaporation. Therefore, their effects on the marine environment may be considerable. The Musa estuary (with several branches) is one of the largest estuaries, located in the northern coastal area of the Persian Gulf (latitude of 30°15 0 –30°32 0 and longitude of 49°–49°20 0 ). It is a coastal ecosystem hosting various unique marine fauna and flora. The self-purification capacity of the Musa estuary is low, and the con- centrations of suspended solids are high. A massive volume of contaminants is transferred into this estuary from the Persian Gulf. In addition, because of its geographical position, many tankers and ships use the Musa estuary as a waterway. The Musa estuary receives a huge quantity of effluents from urban and agri- cultural resources, petrochemical plants, and large ports (Malmasi et al., 2010). Heavy metals with high bioaccumulation ability are abundant and persistent contaminants, therefore probably existing at high concentrations in both the environment and biota samples. Species found at the top of a food chain can accumulate such environmental pollutants in high concentrations. Heavy metals can originate from natural and anthropogenic sources (Jaafarzadeh et al., 2011). The heavy metal concentration in fish is important with regard to the management of nature and human consumption (Karadede et al., 2004). Heavy metal accumulation in fish depends on many fac- tors including several chemical interactions (Wang et al., 2005), their bioavailability and possible pollutant source (Abdolahpur http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.05.036 0025-326X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Jaafarzadeh-n@ajums.ac.ir (N.J.H. Fard), mapseh@gmail.com (M. Ravanbakhsh), zramezani@ajums.ac.ir (Z. Ramezani), ahmadi241@gmail.com (M. Ahmadi), kzfir@yahoo.com (K.A. Angali), ahmaddjavid@gmail.com (A.Z. Javid). Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Please cite this article in press as: Fard, N.J.H., et al. Determination of mercury and vanadium concentration in Johnius belangerii (C) fish in Musa estuary in Persian Gulf. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.05.036