Analysis of their results showed rough agreement with the models used previously – that the ocean contains about 60,000 to 80,000 tons of pollution mercury. In addition, they found that ocean waters shallower than about 100 m (300 feet) have tripled in mercury concentration since the Industrial Revolution and that the ocean as a whole has shown an increase of roughly 10 percent over pre-industrial mercury levels.
“With the increases we’ve seen in the recent past, the next 50 years could very well add the same amount we’ve seen in the past 150,” said Lamborg. “The trouble is, we don’t know what it all means for fish and marine mammals. It likely means some fish also contain at least three times more mercury than 150 years ago, but it could be more. The key is now we have some solid numbers on which to base continued work.”
“Mercury is a priority environmental poison detectable wherever we look for it, including the global ocean abyss,” says Don Rice, Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Chemical Oceanography Program, which funded the research. “These scientists have reminded us that the problem is far from abatement, especially in regions of the world ocean where the human fingerprint is most distinct.”
Check the following link to read/download the Full Study – “A Global Ocean Inventory of Anthropogenic Mercury Based on Water Column Measurements”:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v512/n7512/full/nature13563.html
Source: WHOI.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, independent organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu.
