New research is beginning to unravel how industrial pollutants like PCB are turning up in high concentrations in the high artic. It’s coming from bird poop at the nesting sites of migratory birds.
These fulmars feed from the North Atlantic during the breeding season, scooping plankton, squid, fish and carrion from the sea; it appears that these foodstuffs are… the birds’ source of DDT, mercury and HCB.
If the pollutants then stayed at the breeding sites, there might not be a significant problem; but Dr Blais believes that is not the case.
These nesting sites are oases of biological life in a region which is largely barren,” he said.
POLLENATRIX 