Much of the seafood from the waters off Guangdong province in south China is contaminated, according to tests reported by Yangcheng Evening News.

Figures from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ South China Sea Institute of Oceanology revealed that oysters contained 740 times the safe level of copper and 90 times the cadmium limit. Big-head croaker fish were found with 24 times the safe level of chromium.

Professor Huang Xiaoping from the institute said that the Pearl River Delta would face ecological disaster unless action was taken to curb industrial pollution. The newspaper said waters around fisheries contained high concentrations of heavy metals and other industrial pollutants. The ports with the worst marine environments were in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Maoming.

Guangdong Oceanic and Fisheries Administration reported that more than 40 per cent of waste water discharged into the sea in 2011 was excessively polluted. It found that eight rivers flowing into the sea off Guangdong carried 1.08m tonnes of pollutants, including petroleum, nutrients, heavy metals and arsenic.