Contaminants in fish from potentially polluted sites along the Swedish coast with the nationalmonitoring programme as reference

In this report, fish from potentially polluted sites along the coast of Sweden were analysed for several contaminants and when possible also compared with concentrations in fish from reference sites used within the national monitoring programme for contaminants in marine biota. However, it is important to have in mind that for the polluted sites, sampling has only been carried one single year and only two pooled samples were analysed from each site, which could have effects on the representativeness and the uncertainty of the results. Generally, perch and herring from Lilla Värtan had the highest concentrations of mercury, lead, nickel, silver, CB-153 and CB-118, DDE, dioxins, brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated chemicals, chlorinated paraffins and organotin compounds compared to the other polluted sites. Among the stations where eelpout and cod were sampled, Rivöfjord had highest concentration of several contaminants. The contaminants include mercury, lead, chromium, CB-153 and CB-118, dioxins, brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated chemicals, chlorinated paraffins and organotin compounds. It is not very surprising that these two areas show the highest concentrations of several of the investigated contaminants in fish. Lilla Värtan is situated in Stockholm and hence is affected by the big city, in addition, heavy boat traffic of different kinds are taking place in this water along with several other harmful environmental activities in this area. SCCP showed the highest concentrations in herring from Lilla Värtan, while perch on the contrary had the lowest concentration of SCCP among all of the perch sites. This is however difficult to explain. Rivö fjord is situated just outside Gothenburg city and is thus affected by activities in the city. Also, the main part of Gothenburg’s harbor activities takes place close by Rivö fjord. Moreover, Ryaverken, which is a sewage treatment plant, and two refineries are also affecting the water. Thus, the two largest