To understand Yangjiang,Guangdong nearshore sea surface water content and potential eco-logical risk of heavy metals,samples surface waters were collected at 14 stations.The content distribu-tion characteristics of 7 kinds of heavy metals were analyzed in surface waters including Cr,Cu,Zn,Cd,Pb,As,and Hg.The Hakanson method was adopted to evaluate their ecological risk index and potential ecological harm.The results showed that the average concentrations of heavy metals Cr,Cu,Zn,Cd,Pb,As and Hg in the surface waters off Yangjiang were 1.10 μg/L,5.25 μg/L,9.91 μg/L,0.027 μg/L,0.945 μg/L,1.06 μg/L and 0.027 μg/L,respectively.Among them,Cr,Zn,Cd,Pb,As and Hg met the quality standards for class Ⅰ seawater,while Cu met the quality standards for class Ⅱ seawater.There was a strong correlation among the 7 heavy metals,and each heavy metal also had a certain correlation with different environmental parameters.Based on the analysis of the potential eco-logical risk index,the average value of RI was calculated to be 6.59,which was a slight ecological haz-ard and the overall level of cleanliness.