Mercury cormorants

Henny CJ, Hill EF, Hoffman DJ, Spalding MG, Grove RA. 2002. Nineteenth century mercury hazard to wading birds and cormorants of the Carson River, Nevada. Ecotoxicology 11 213-231. 

Mason CF, Ekins G, Ratford JR. 1997. PCB congeners, DDE, dieldrin and mercury in eggs from an expanding colony of cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo). Chemosphere 34 1845-1849. 

Sepulveda MS, Poppenga RH, Arrecis JJ, Quinn LB. 1998. Mercury and selenium concentrations in free-ranging in tissues from double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) from southern Florida. Colonial Waterbirds 2T35M2. 

The hepatic tissue and pectoral muscle of a great cormorant P. carbo) specimen caught in July 1999 at river profile Banatska Palanka - Ram was also analyzed. Cormorant, as an ichthyophagous bird represents an extranely suitable object for indirect determination of heavy metals and specific organic pollutant accumulation in fish. The hepatic tissue contained much higher concentrations of copper, mercury, PAHs and PCBs than the muscles (Table 2). It is important to emphasize that this was the first record of PCB presence in the tissues of an ichthyophagous bird although this kind of the study had been performed over many years [1,2]. 

Table 2 Accumulation of copper, mercury, PAHs and PCBs in pectoral muscle and hepatic tissue of a great cormorant - Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnaeus, 1758)...

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