POSTER Heavy metal contamination in corals from Isimangaliso and Aliwal Shoal Marine Protected Areas, South Africa V. VAN DER SCHYFF, M. DU PREEZ, H. BOUWMAN School for Environmental Management North-West University South Africa Email: [email protected] Little is known concerning the accumulation of heavy metals in corals from the Indian Ocean. Previous studies from Africa were from the Red Sea. Heavy metals have been found in corals all over the world, but this study, as far as we are aware of, is the first from South Africa. Corals are prey to various reef fish and invertebrates, indicating the potential of bio-accumulation of heavy metals in coral reef food webs. During June 2014, we collected samples of four genera of soft coral (Sarcophyton, Dendronephthya, Eutherobia and Sinularia) and five genera of hard coral (Fungia, Montipora, Stylophora, Pocillopora and Dendronephyllia) from two localities: (1) Sodwana Reef is located in the North of KwaZulu-Natal and is a popular tourist diving site, and (2) Aliwal Shoal, 100 km South of Durban. The largest SAPPI factory is located on the shores of the Umkumaas River and effluent is pumped out to sea through a 6 km pipeline that ends up north of the shoal. Because of this point source of potential contamination, we predicted that Aliwal Shoal will have a higher concentration of contaminant metals in the coral tissue due to its proximity to industry relative to the corals collected at Sodwana — a World Heritage Site. We analysed the coral samples for heavy metals, including Hg, Pb, Zn, Cd, Mn and Ni, with ICP-AES, and will discuss the implications of the results. .