Special guest paper : Environmental fate and chemistry of organic pollutants in the sediment of Xiamen and Victoria Harbours

Sediment samples were collected from Xiamen Harbour, the Peopleʹs Republic of China, and Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, and were analysed for non-aromatic hydrocarbons (NAHs), long-chain linear alkylbenzenes (LABs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organochlorine pesticides (HCHs, DDTs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In Xiamen Harbour, concentrations varied from 3.1–32.9 μg g−1 for NAH, 2.9–61 μg g−1 for PAHs, 0.14–1.12 ng g−1 for HCHs, 4.45–311 ng g−1 for DDTs and 0.05–7.24 ng g−1 for PCBs. In Victoria Harbour, the concentration ranges of those pollutants were 60–646 μg g−1, 1.2–14.0 μg g−1, undetectable to 2.3 ng g−1, 1.38–30.3 ng g−1 and 3.2–16.0 ng g−1, respectively. The distribution patterns of various organic pollutants in the sediments are discussed. The NAH levels present in Victoria Harbour indicated that there was significant petroleum contamination in the harbour. Xiamen Harbour was slightly more contaminated by DDTs. LABs could be used as synthetic detergent tracers. From the data available, it is concluded that Victoria Harbour is more polluted than Xiamen Harbour. The structure of the benthic community provides further evidence to support this claim.