Abstract

To characterize the contamination state of shellfish farming waters around Saryangdo Island, the surface sediment was evaluated for Acid Volatile Sulfide (AVS), organic matter (ignition loss and chemical oxygen demand), and heavy metals (Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn). AVS was relative low all the sampling sites except station 1 influeced by low current velocity at open sea, as well as organic matter was the highest at Station 2 influenced from fish cage. The trace elements (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) showed relatively low level at the narrow channel in Station 3-6, but the highest at Station 7 near Gumpyeong port in Saryang Island. The concetration of metal was satisfied the criteria of TEL and PEL in all metal elements. For Igeo, Zn was strongly polluted at all stations, as well as, the sediments were polluted with excess of 1.0 for PLI. ERI represented realtively low risk at all sampling sites. The finding indicated that the study waters was relatively low contaminated because of low sedimentation at narrow channel between Sarayng Islands.