Coastal habitats play a major role as nurseries for many fish species; however, they are also submitted to pollutants and oxygen fluctuations. Fry's concept of metabolic scope for activity was used to evaluate the effect of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the aerobic metabolism in juvenile common sole (0-1 year old). Aerobic metabolic scope (AMS) in control and PCB-contaminated fish via food pathway was determined using respirometry techniques. Furthermore, the hypoxia tolerance in control and PCB-contaminated fish was evaluated by assessing their critical oxygen concentration (O2crit). Our results showed that while PCB-contaminated fish were able to maintain a constant AMS, PCBs tend to affect their aerobic metabolism by acting on standard metabolic rate, maximal oxygen consumption (MO2max) in hypoxia and O2crit. In conclusion, we can hypothesise that a long-term exposure to PCBs may decrease their tolerance to hypoxia and consequently impair the survival and/or development of soles in their natural environment.