Author: Story materials are provided by Dartmouth College, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Topic: Marine Science/ Fishes affected by Mercury
Date of Article: October 3, 2013
Topic: Marine Science/ Fishes affected by Mercury
Date of Article: October 3, 2013
Dartmouth researchers and colleague believe that the rising ocean surface temperatures that happened because of climate change which increased fish's chance of having more mercury. This also puts people who eat seafood at a big health risk. Before there wasn't much information or knowledge on how global warming can affect marine life and we don't have an info. about experimenting them in laboratory or field. Mercury is very toxic and once it is released in the air it can cause pollution in streams and oceans. So when it is in water it turns into methyl-mercury. Some researchers were studying killfish under different temperatures in the lab and they put in slat mash pool (in Maine). The fishes in the marshes ate natural food resources as worms and insects. The fishes in the lab ate food with mercury. The results was that the fishes in warm water ate more with slower growth than with high methyl-mercury
levels in their tissues. This means that when they increase metabolic rate, it caused the toxic metal to increase
as well.
as well.
I chose this article because it had a very alerting title that interested me. When I first saw mercury, it really alerted me because I heard that mercury is toxic/harmful. This gave me curiosity in wondering what did it have to do with fishes, is what attracted me to pick this article with important knowledge. I found how they did the experiment by separating the fishes in different areas and feeding them different food to discover what will happen as result interesting. This idea also reminded me of a placebo experiment, but it is a bit different because they change the food and area. This reminds me of how mercury is toxic and it is inside of fish which we eat. This reminds me of eating fish which has toxic mercury which is harmful to us. Though having a little mercury isn't too bad for us, because we do need a little mercury.
I think that the researchers are going to find out a way to help the fishes decrease their mercury. Or if they can't decrease mercury in fishes then the fishes can become endangered species. Increased mercury in fish is caused by global warming which is something that we can not control but help. Right now we can help by recycling, reduce pollution, reduce heaters, air conditioners, use less hot water, and plant trees. We have to work together in order to achieve this goal of decreasing global warming. I found this article important because it doesn't just affect the fishes but us as well because they are in the food chain. Fishes having increased mercury can harm us, themselves, and the environment so this article must be visible to others so they have the knowledge of what how global warming is causing increased mercury in fishes.