This stidy was intended to investigate the heavy metal contents in the bottom sediments of the continental shelt around the Jeju Island and ot the southern coastal area of the Korean Peninsula. For this study 39 bottom sedinent samples were taken from the study area using Phleger gramity corer and Snapper. The average contents of heavy metals were 59.1 ppm Zn, 362.6 ppm Mn, 63.8 ppm Cr, 15.7 ppm Pb, 10.0 ppm Co, 28.9 ppm Ni, 10.5 ppm Cu, and 2.7% Fe in the surficial sediments around the Jejr Island; and 79.ppm Zn, 384 ppm Mn, 8.6 ppm Pb, 17.8 ppm Ni, 23.2 ppm Cu, and 1.59 % fe in those of nearsgore of the southern coastal area respectively. The heavy metal contents were higher in the northwestern part around the Jeju Island compared to those in other region. However, these tendencies were not the result of pollution, but of the differences of grain size of the sedimenrs. In the nearshore of the southern coast, the heavy metal contents did not show any geographical tendency. However, those of Masan and Jinhae Bays wew higher than those of the other region. These seemed to be caused by waste disposal from the industrial compsex located at the adjacent land. Nevertheless these values of heavy metal content except for Zn and Cu in Masan Bay and inner bay of Jinhae are lower than the average values of the each world-wide data of the nearshore sedimentl. The pair correlations of the cach heavy metal elements were calculated by regressino analysis using VAX 780 computer. the following pair elements, such as Zn-Cu, Ni-Cu, Fe-cu, Cr-Cu, Co-Zn, Ni-Zn, Cr-Zn, Ni-Co, Fe-Co, Cr-Co, Fe-Ni, Cr-Ni and Cr-Fe show closely posetive linear correlations in the sediments around the Jeju Island. In general, the heavy metal content increases in proportion to the increase of the mean values of the grain size of the sediments around the Jeju Island. In the southern coastal area, in gineral, thepair correlations of each heavy metal elements did not southern coastal area, in general, the pair correlatttttions of rach heavy metal elements did not show any positive correlation except for the positive linear correlations of Cu-Zn, Cu-ni and Ni-Mn. It is interpreted as a result of the differences of the physecochemical environment of the sampling sites and also of the influences of the ondustrial wastes from the manufacturing factores located at the coastal zone of the study area.