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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.38, 1-4
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
2
water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and pH
using the instrument ‘Hydrolab’ (Model SVR 2-SV)
which can measure the hydrographic parameters
within the ranges of the following: temperature
-
5 to
+45 C; DO 0 to 20 mg/l; salinity 0 – 50 ppt; pH 0 to
14 and depth 0 to 200 m. For measuring the heavy
metals in the water where the deformed fish
specimens obtained, the method of Alyahya et al.
(2011) was used. In this method,
the water sample was
filtered through a 0.45-μm membrane filter before
being acidified with concentrated nitric acid.
The
dissolved trace metals were concentrated by using
chelex-100 resin following the procedure of Riely and
Taylor (1968).
Then the water sample was analyzed,
in triplicate, using an atomic absorption
spectrophotometer (Model SP 9) for analysis of
As,
Cd, Hg, Pb, and Zn
.
Deionised water was used
throughout the analysis. Values for hydrographic
parameters are shown in Table 1 and values of heavy
metals are shown in Table 2.
Figure 1 Map showing location of the sites sampling. Map
showing locality where fish specimens were obtained
Table 1 Mean and range of oceanographic variables of water
samples from Khasab, south of the Arabian Gulf
Oceanographic variables
Range
Temperature (°C)
Min
23.05
Max
36.43
Ave
28.59
Hydrogen ion concentration (pH)
Min
6.42
Max
9.08
Ave
8.71
Dissolved Oxygen (mg/lit)
Min
6.65
Max
10.04
Ave
8.15
Salinity (ppt)
Min
36.90
Max
39.40
Ave
37.50
Table 2 Concentration of heavy metal (μ g/g dry weight) in
water sample from Khasab, south of the Arabian Gulf
Heavy metal
Value
(
μg/ml)
Nature concentration of
marine water (EPA 2002)
As
10.7
3
Cd
0.42
0.11
Hg
0.04
0.03
Pb
6
0.3
Zn
34.9
10
2 Results
Caudal fin deformity was visible on the fish bodies
immediately after capture when compared with the
normal specimen (Figures 2 a, b). The external
examination of the deformed caudal fin showed that
this fin has lost its both dorsal and ventral lobes. In
addition, the caudal fin rays appeared to be short,
wavy and stuck together. In comparison with the x-ray
of the normal specimen (Figures 3 a, b), the abnormal
specimen showed some severe anomalies, these are:
missing the whole caudal skeleton which includes the
following bones, the hypural bones, urostyle, epurals
and parhypural; missing two caudal vertebrae;
deformed centrum of the vertebra number 35, the last
vertebra in the vertebral column of this specimen, and
losing its both the neural and haemal spines; neural
spine of the vertebrae 33 and 34 are not straight and
not curved backward as in the normal specimen;
haemal spine of vertebrae 32, 33 and 34 are straight
and short with haemal spine of vertebra 32 is the
shortest; and vertebra 33 has two haemal spines. Other
minor anomalies were also detected these are: strongly
undulated caudal fin rays; wavy posterior 14
pterygiophores (counting from the posterior end of the
dorsal fin) supporting the dorsal fin; and wavy last
five anal fin rays and their supporting pterygiophores.
3 Discussion
The disturbances in the environment where the fish
lives can be traced and monitoured through the
appearance of spinal deformities which can be a sign
of the existence of such disturbances in the
ecosystem.Therefore, it is important to makr people
are aware of how healthy is the environment that they
living in. In fishes, in general, the caudal fin has an
important role in maneuvering and steering functions;
therefore it must be constructed so as to cope with
hydrodynamic stresses with the least possible
expenditure of energy (Boglione et al., 1993). Any