Elevated levels of mercury have been found in bald eagles in the Catskill Park region of the state, according to the New York Times.
A study conducted by the BioDiversity Research Institute of Gorham, Maine, found that eagle chicks in the Catskill Park had average mercury blood levels of 0.64 parts per million and that ``about one-quarter of the feathers of adult birds also had elevated levels of mercury, suggesting that the toxin builds up in the raptors faster than they can get rid of it,'' the Times reported.
The bad news about mercury comes against a more positive backdrop, as the birds, a symbol of America since the 18th century, have been coming back from near extirpation in the lower 48 states.
From 1967 until 1995, bald eagles were considered an endangered species, a status that was upgraded to ``threatened''
See EAGLES on Page 2
until last year, when they were de-listed federally.
Still, their population is nothing like the hundreds of thousand of eagles that patrolled the continent a couple of centuries ago. Human encroachment on habitat, electrocution from power lines and, especially, the pesticide DDT nearly wiped the birds out in many locations by the late 1960s.
Since DDT was banned in 1972, wildlife experts have been working to bring the eagles back.
In New York and other states, programs were initiated to take a few eggs from eagles' nests in Alaska, where they were plentiful, then raise and release them in the wild here.
Andy Mason of Jefferson, a longtime birder with the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society, lauded the program. Years ago, an eagle sighting was rare, said Mason, who has been counting eagles in the Cannonsville-Pepacton reservoir area for more than two decades.
By last January, however, birders on an expedition from Delhi to Deposit to Downsville spotted between 20 and 30 birds, he said Tuesday.
Still, he and fellow Audubon Society member Tom Salo of Burlington said elevated levels of mercury are a worry in the long term.
``Mercury is a neurotoxin,'' Salo said, ``and it's unfortunate but not surprising to find it in eagles, because they're at the top of the food chain.''
Eagles, which nest near water, depend on fish as an integral part of their diet. And fish in this region of New York contain mercury, which comes from a number of sources.
``The biggest source is definitely the power plants in the Midwest,'' Salo said.
Coal-burning plants in Ohio and surrounding states emit mercury, which is volatilized during burning. The poison can linger in the air for hundreds of miles, traveling east with prevailing winds until it falls in rain on New York and other eastern states.
``Acid rain can also release mercury from the soil,'' Mason noted.
David Evers, the BioDiversity Institute's director, said researchers are not sure what effect increased mercury levels will have on the birds, according to the Times.
