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Coastal marine sediment samples were collected from 31 sampling stations along the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea coast. All sediment samples were analyzed to determine aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as well as total organic carbon (TOC) contents and grain size analysis. Total concentrations of 16 EPA-PAHs in the sediments were varied from 88 to 6338 ng g−1 with an average value of 154 ng g−1 (dry weight). However, the concentrations of total aliphatic were varied from 1.3 to 69.9 ng g−1 with an average value of 15.6 ng g−1 (dry weight). The highest contents of PAHs were found in the Eastern harbor (6338 ng g−1), Manzala (5206 ng g−1) and El-Jamil East (4895 ng g−1) locations. Good correlations observed between a certain numbers of PAH concentrations allowed to identify its origin. The average total organic carbon (TOC) percent was varied from 0.91 to 4.54%. Higher concentration of total pyrolytic hydrocarbons (∑COMB) than total fossil hydrocarbons (∑PHE) declared that atmospheric fall-out is the significant source of PAHs to marine sediments of the Egyptian Mediterranean coast. The selected marked compounds, a principal component analysis (PCA) and special PAHs compound ratios (phenanthrene/anthracene vs fluoranthene/pyrene; ∑COMB/∑EPA-PAHs) suggest the pyrogenic origins, especially traffic exhausts, are the dominant sources of PAHs in most locations. Interferences of rather petrogenic and pyrolytic PAH contaminations were noticed in the harbors due to petroleum products deliveries and fuel combustion emissions from the ships staying alongside the quays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jizan is the most fish-productive area (50 edible species out of >250 species) and the third harbor, with a 250 km long coastline, in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Jizan is a densely populated city with many industrial and agricultural activities. However, there are no published studies on the Jizan Environment. This study aims at monitoring and assessing the levels of some heavy metals in twelve commercially important and locally consumed fish species captured from Jizan Fisheries, Red Sea. A wet microwave digestion procedure was applied for sample treatment. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used for measurements. Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd were successfully quantified while Co, Cr and Pb were found below the detection limits. Spiking approach was applied to examine the quality of analytical results and acceptable recovery (86.3-99.7%) was achieved. The obtained data were subjected to Pearson's correlation coefficients analysis. Additionally, the levels of heavy metals were found to be the levels established by the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organization for fish destined for human consumption, with some exceptions. Moreover, the target hazard quotient values revealed safe use for weekly intake regarding the examined heavy metals, with the exception of Cd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]