Abstract:
The objective of the study is to determine the concentration of heavy metal element in
ballast water from ships in Kuantan, Pahang port. In this study, seven element of heavy
metals were studied. They are chromium, manganese, iron, cooper, zinc, cadmium and
lead. The results show that zink may become the most potential dangerous element to the
environment especially marine life followed by iron. The other objective of this study is
to determine the concentration of polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) compound in ballast
water from ships in Kuantan, Pahang port. The target compound groups that were
highlighted in this study are P AHs. The P AHs compounds are Naphthalene,
Acenaphthylene, Acenaphthene, Fluorene, Phenanthrene, Anthracene, Fluoranthene,
Pyrene, Chrysene, Benz[ a ]anthracene, Benzo[k ]flouranthene, Benzo[b ]fluoranthene,
Benzo(a)pyrene, Indeno[l,2,3-cd]pyrene, Dibenz[a,h]anthracene and
Benzo[ghi]perylene. The hydrocarbon and heavy metal was assessed by one-way
ANOV A test. The investigation shows that Benzo (a) pyrene is consider an indicator of
contamination because it usually occurs in mixtures of P AHs. Results shows that, there is
an absent of benzo (a) pyrene in port water sample collected in Kuantan, Pahang Port.
But there are present of Naphthalene, Phenanthrene and Anthracene in every station
studied. The introduction of heavy metal compound through ballast water has been
identified as one of the greatest threats to the world's ocean. In Malaysia, the ships ballast
water management just being implemented. Before this, there is no specific regulation
towards the usage of ballast water in Malaysia. There is no recent study on ballast water
in Malaysia especially towards water quality in the coast of Malaysia.
