Analyzing the feathers of the black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) going back to 1880. researchers have uncovered rising levels of the toxic methylmercury in the endangered birds that is generally consistent with rising mercury emissions in the Pacific region. Methylmercury is a more toxic compound than mercury that binds with organic molecules when it is released through industrial processes, such as burning coal and other fossil fuels.
“We are starting to find high levels [of methylmercury] in endangered and sensitive species across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, indicating that mercury pollution and its subsequent chemical reactions in the environment may be important factors in species population declines,” explains study co-author Michael Bank, a research associate in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
 Black-footed albatross on Sand Island, Midway Atoll. Photo by: James Lloyd. |
To conduct the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed feathers from a number of natural history museums. Feathers from more recent specimens contained higher levels of methylmercury, spiking during the 1990s when mercury emissions in Asia rose considerably.
Listed by the IUCN Red List as Endangered, the black-footed albatross is largely threatened as by-catch by long-line fisheries in the Pacific with at least 4,000 are drowned annually. However, with this new study researchers warn that long-line fisheries may not be the only threat: methylmercury could dampen conservation efforts for the black-footed albatross and many other seabirds.
“Toxicity may undermine reproductive effort in this species and other long-lived, endangered seabirds,” said lead author Anh-Thu Vo, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.
The findings, however, also point to the potential human intake of methylmercury by eating marine fish.
“Much of the mercury pollution issue is really about how much society values wild animal populations, yet we are also faced with the tremendous public health challenge of communicating potential risks from mercury exposure to vulnerable adult and child human populations. Although most people have low or no risk from mercury exposure, for the people who are at risk, for example, from excessive fish consumption, the problem can be considerable,” explained Bank.
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