For the purpose of safety identification, the concentrations of heavy metals in seaweeds collected from Busan Gijang coastal area were investigated. The average concentration of metals had a level of as high as the order of manganese (2.76 ppm)>zinc(2.11 ppm)>copper(0.59 ppm)>arsenic (0.092 ppm)>lead(0.06 ppm)> mercury(0.03 ppm)>cadmium(0.026 ppm). The contents of manganese and zinc were highly detected from P. elliptica, copper and mercury from agar, cadmium from sea mustard and arsenic from wild sea mustard, respectively. The metal contents of seaweeds varied with kinds of samples, but high level for the safety can be found in these samples. Because P. elliptica had shown a clear selectivity for both manganese and zinc, this seaweed could be useful as a bioindicator for these two metal pollution.

• Kap Seop Jeong(Department of Food Science & Technology, Tongmyong University) Corresponding Author