Abstract: Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can persist in the environment. They are transported from the offshore to the far-reaching sea through atmosphere, water, and species migration. They are easy to accumulate in organisms, with carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects. POPs in the ocean are mostly stored in seawater and seabed sediments. They can be transferred along the food chain and accumulate and magnify in organisms, posing a potential threat to habitats and animal health. POPs levels are affected by environmental pollution, climate change, interspecific feeding behavior, metabolic capacity, fat content, and intergenerational transmission. Sharks are key predators of marine, with strong regulatory roles on ecosystem structure and functioning. In recent years, the abundance of sharks has declined globally. Sharks occupy the top or near top trophic position of the marine food web. Due to the bioaccumulation and bioamplification effects of POPs, POPs content in sharks is relatively high, which is not conducive to their resource recovery. In this review, research progress and applications of POPs in sharks were reviewed with the aim of evaluating their impacts on sharks and their potential values in scientific research on shark ecology. POPs in sharks are mainly concentrated in the livers, comprising predominantly of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which have negative impacts on endocrine, immune, reproductive, and nervous systems, and even growth and development. In addition, POPs in sharks also have potential applications in clarifying allocation patterns of interspecific and intraspecific resources, trophic niche partitioning, and the assessment of habitat environmental pollution.

Key words: persistent organic pollutant, bioaccumulation, shark, pollution level.