Abstract: With the progress in coastal zone development, massive human activities become stronger, which leads to the pollution of marine wetlands. Taking the Nandagang wetlands as a case, the characteristics of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from 19 surface sediments are studied and risk assessment carried out in this research. The results show that the total concentration of 16 PAHs in surface sediments of the Nandagang wetlands ranges from 7.12 to 156.10 ng/g with a mean around 63.03 ng/g, which remains on a relatively low level in comparison with other places in the world in terms of PAHs pollution. The PAHs of the study area are mainly coming from a mixed source of petroleum leakage and oil combustion, based on the data acquired by means of selected PAHs ratios, the two-tailed Pearson correlation and principal components analysis at different sites. The ecological risk assessment revealed by the effects range-low (ERL) and the effects range-median (ERM) suggests that negative effects of the PAHs are limited in the surface sediments from the Nandagang wetlands, except for acenaphthene and fluorene in a few sites which bears potential risk to the environment. The present work may provide some basic data and scientific information for environment protection and management along the Bohai coast.