Amino Acids Content of Selected Fishes as an Index of Pollution

The major occupation and the very source of living of inhabitants of Bayelsa state is predominantly fish farming due to vast mass of water bodies surrounding them. This implies that fish is their main source of protein. Fish is a very important source of animal protein in the diet of man. A wide range of human activities contribute to the pollution of the aquatic environment in this state. The major activities include petroleum exploration, industrial processing (chemicals, metals, alloy, chloro-alkali, and petroleum), fuel combustion, agriculture (fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides), domestic and agricultural effluents etc. Fishes for human consumption whether eaten directly, processed or fed to domestic animal as fish meal are almost entirely harvested from the water bodies such as lakes, ponds, sea water, rivers etc (Christopher and Fredrick, 1985). Much studies and research have been carried out on the effect of heavy metals and hydro-carbon pollution on the ecosystems in the Niger Delta region without paying attention to the nutritional contents of the marine life.