M.M Rafeie
S Ghadi
M Taherianfard

Objective: The Kor River is one of the permanent rivers of the Fars Province exposed to various contaminations such as heavy metals, because of accumulation of industrial and agricultural centers around it. Heavy metals accumulate in different tissues of fish and so can have adverse effect on their life and their consumers such as humans. So, in this study lead concentration of various tissues of fish in the kor river was evaluated. Method & Materials: Kor river was divided into three parts: upper zone (Doroodzan dam zone as control), mid zone (Bandamir village) and lower zone (Korbal Village). Systematically, 52, 95 and 94 fish were caught from each zone. In this river two species of cyprinidae family existed, namely Cyprinus carpio and Capoeta sp. Samples from muscles, livers, kidneys, brain, ovaries and testis of fish were collected. After sample digestion, their lead concentration was calculated by ICP method. Results & Conclusion: Statistical analysis of data showed that the mid zone fish had the highest concentration of lead than other zones. There was no significant difference with respect to the sex and species of fish. The results were similar to the results of other studies around the world indicating that the accumulation of heavy metals in fish tissues depends of the range of water contamination. It was also illustrated that lead concentration in fish tissue of the river is in the level of world standard. However, it should be emphasized that the presence of even low amount of lead in water can have adverse effects on fish in long time.

Kor River, fish, accumulation, concentration, leads