Bald Eagles in Catskills Show Increasing Mercury

[Guest guest]

Bald Eagles in Catskills Show Increasing Mercury

" If mercury is affecting them, it eventually is going to affect us, as

well "

By ANTHONY DePALMA, NY Times. http://is.gd/8ZVI

Less than two years after the bald eagle was removed from the federal

government's endangered species list, an environmental organization in

Maine has found an alarming accumulation of mercury in the blood and

feathers of bald eagle chicks in the Catskill Park region of New York.

The levels are close to those associated with reproductive problems in

common loons and bald eagles elsewhere in the Northeast, although the

New York and national populations of bald eagles have been growing

strongly in recent years.

The study is being released Tuesday by the BioDiversity Research

Institute, a nonprofit ecological organization in Gorham, Me. The

average mercury blood level in chicks within the parks' boundaries was

0.64 parts per million.

The same study showed that about one-quarter of the feathers of adult

birds also had elevated levels of mercury, suggesting that the toxin

builds up in the raptors faster than they can get rid of it.

+ Read more: http://is.gd/8ZVI