Abstract
Iron, manganese, zinc, copper, lead, nickel, cadmium, cobalt, and mercury were determined in 23 tissues and organs of loggerhead turtles (6 females and 1 male), in order to understand fundamental information for heavy metal monitoring in sea turtle species. These heavy metal con-centrations and burdens were high in liver, kidney, pancreas, and hard tissues, while low in brain and fat tissue. However, markedly high zinc concentration was found in fat tissue. Zinc concentration in fat was about ten times higher than in fat of marine mammals and seabirds species previously reported. Furthermore, total burden of zinc in fat comprised more than 10% of the whole body burden. More than 10% of copper burdens to whole body burden were found in eggs and ovary, suggesting that copper may be easily transfered to reproductive organs.
