Researchers say a combination of pollution and nature’s reaction to it is contaminating fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Researchers say a combination of pollution and nature’s reaction
to it is contaminating fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports.
Natural wind patterns carry many pollutants across the Midwest
region, and some of that pollution is deposited in the Great Lakes basin…
including simple forms of mercury. But researchers are finding a more
complex and toxic form of mercury in fish called methyl mercury. Jim Hurley is a
water chemist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and
The University of Wisconsin.
“We think that there are certain characteristics of watersheds,
particularly those that have wetlands in them, there’s the right mix of
conditions to form methyl mercury.”
Hurley says bacteria may be transforming mercury. He’s found that
fish caught in Lake Superior near the shore or near where rivers flow
into the lake have higher amounts of methyl mercury in them than the
same types of fish caught in the middle of the lake. He’s launching a three year
study to see if the bacteria in the watersheds and wetlands are responsible
for the difference.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.