In order to investigate contamination of heavy metal in seawater and cultured oyster, samples were collected November 2003 to July 2004 from 12 sites (13 sites for seawater) along the coast of Tongyeong, Korea. The mean concentrations of metal in oyster tissues were as follows: 0.09 (0.01-0.3) §¶/l for Cd, 0.47 (0.01-1.4) §¶/l for Cr, 0.59 (0.2-2.3) §¶/l for Ni, 1.02 (0.1-4.2) §¶/l for Pb and 0.48 (0.01-3.9) §¶/l for Hg in the seawater, whereas 2.45 (0-5.47) mg/kgDW for Cd, 3.63 (0.10-12.91) mg/kgDW for Cr, 3.2 (0.01-15.73) mg/kgDW for Ni, 3.51 (0.01-6.47) mg/kgDW for Pb and 0.39 (0.004-0.74) mg/kgDW for Hg, respectively. Most metal concentration values were below the permissible range for the related regulations. Mean bioconcentration factors (BCF) for each metal were as follows: 38,964 (1,771-207, 171) for Cd, 9,583 (1,231-80, 162) for Cr, 191 (3-20, 980) for Ni, 1,416 (245-5, 207) for Pb and 180 (5-716) for Hg, respectively. The BCF values from this study corresponded to the transitional phase from the pristine to the contaminated waters. Notably, Cd showed the highest BCF, which suggest that the Pacific oyster could be utilized as a useful biomarker for Cd contamination in sea water. The multidimensional scaling analysis suggested that the metal contaminants are mainly originated from combustion of fossil fuel and accumulated to oyster through food web.