Investigation of heavy metals accumulating in muscle tissues of three marine fish species sold in Ankara fish market

The black Sea is currently polluted in many ways. This research's objective was to detect the toxic metals in the Black Sea and evaluate how much of them fish are absorbing. In the fish market in Ankara, three different varieties of fish Engraulis encrasicolus, Merlangius merlangus euxinus and Trachurus mediterraneus were purchased. 28 heavy metals were dosed in fish muscle using ICP-MS. Before tissues analysis, the three kind of fishes were dissected and fish muscle samples from the Black Sea Region were digested using a microwave digestion. Among these, some of them are the most frequently studied (As, Mn, Cd, Pb, Se, Cu, Hg, fe, Cr, Co and Ni) in these three kind of species. Fish samples contained toxic element levels of 0.0057-0.63 ug/g for lead, 0.0066-0.05 ug/g for mercury, 0.06-0.09 ug/g for arsenic, 0-0.0058 ug/g for cadmium, and 0.27-0.32 ug/g for nickel. Fish samples had trace amounts of iron 32.99-82.50 ug/g, copper 0.19-0.85 ug/g, manganese 0.20-0.23 ug/g, zinc 3.58-33.14 ug/g, selenium 0.041-0.049 ug/g, 4.37-8.05 ug/g for chromium and ND for cobalt. These metals are regulated by the Turkish Food Codex and there is only one heavy metal (lead) among them that has exceeded the Turkish Food Codex in two species Engraulis encrasicolus, and Merlangius merlangus euxinus.