Graduate student Yasmine Jaafar Razaq, from the Department of Natural Oceanography at the College of Marine Sciences at the University of Basra, discussed her thesis entitled:
"A Study of Parasitic Helminths as Biomarkers for Assessing the Levels and Concentrations of Some Heavy Metals in the Tissues of Some Fish in the Shatt al-Arab River."

The study aimed to estimate the concentrations of aluminum, arsenic, boron, lead, and chromium in the tissues of infected fish and their associated parasites.

The results showed that some types of parasites, such as trematodes and echinocephalus, have the ability to reduce the accumulation of some heavy metals in fish tissue, highlighting their role as biomarkers for monitoring environmental pollution in the Shatt al-Arab River.