 As the recipient of polluted waste water from Norilsk Nickel's metallurgical plants, it is almost completely devoid of fish.Environmental studies has been performed and comparative analysis of the data on heavy metal concentrations, namely Cu, Ni, Zn, Hg, Cd and Hg, in fish (burbot), moss, lichens, periphyton, hydric soils and snow in vicinity of Norilsk and further out in the most northern parts of the Taymyr Peninsula completed.Heavy metal concentrations in burbot liver were highest in Lake Pyasino compared to other study regions that were more than 100 km away.