The presence of organotin (OT) compounds was investigated in coastal areas (10 stations), wastewater treatment systems (six stations), rivers (19 stations) and lakes (12 stations) throughout Greece, in three sampling campaigns organized between October 1998 and September 1999. A screening method for the determination of toluene extractable organotins (TEOTs) by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ETAAS) was used during the first two sampling campaigns. TEOTs (sum of tributyltin, TBT, dibutyltin, DBT and triphenyltin, TPhT) were detected in most seawater and wastewater samples at concentrations up to 19.4 and 89.9ng l−1, respectively, while they were detected occasionally in surface water. During the third sampling campaign, OT compounds were extracted in selected stations using direct derivatization with NaBEt4 in acidic medium and analysed by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS). In seawater, the levels of TBT, DBT and monobutyltin (MBT) were varied between < 2 and 70, 159 and 19ng l−1, respectively and tend to decrease with increasing distance from the coastline. TPhT was not detected in any of the samples. Significant concentrations of OT species were detected in influent wastewater, up to 384, 76.2 and 67.8ng l−1 for TBT, DBT and MBT, respectively. OTs were mainly associated with the suspended solids and were totally removed during wastewater treatment.