Crude (without removal of protein) shrimp chitin adsorbed over 95% and 96% of Cu and Cr respectively from a solution with 20-100 mg l-1 concentrations, which was comparable to the removal by crab chitosan (Chui et al. 1996). Nickel was not so easily removed by the shrimp chitin (44-70% removal efficiency) compared to 82-99% removal by the crab chitosan.