Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Coastal Sediments between Al-Haymah and Al-Mokha, South Red Sea, Yemen

The area between Al-Haymah and Al-Mokha on the Red Sea of Yemen is a promising region for future tourism development. It is also characterized by population activities, especially fishing in more than one location and there is a commercial port in Al-Mokha. The aim of the present study is to investigate the distribution of heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Zn, Ni and Pb) and Ecological Risk Assessment to assess the contamination levels of the coastal surface sediments. Distribution and ecological risk for Cu, Cd, Zn, Ni and Pb in sediment samples collected from 11 regions (37 stations) in the coasts of Yemen were studied. The results showed that the most of sediments are sand (83.83%), the content of organic matter was low (1.4%) and rich of calcium carbonate (56.1%) while the heavy metals arranged according to their abundance as follows: Zn ˃ Cu ˃ Ni ˃ Pb ˃ Cd. The contamination factor values for heavy metals arranged according to their dangerous as follows: Cd ˃ Cu ˃ Zn ˃ Pb ˃ Ni, and the potential ecological risk index values for heavy metals, according to the order evaluation of pollution in the various regions as follows: (Qataba ˃ Al-Mokha > North Al-Mokha ˃ Al-Ruays ˃ Abu-Zahr ˃ South Al-Mokha ˃ Zahari > Al-Khowkhah ˃ Al-Haymah ˃ Yokhtul ˃ Moushij). The present study shows that the coastal sediments in this part of the Red Sea coast of Yemen are not Polluted by heavy metals Cu, Zn, Ni and Pb, but it heavily polluted by Cd.