Mercury and Chlorinated Pesticides on the Highest Level of the Food Web as Exemplified by Herring from the Southern Baltic and African Penguins from the Zoo

Aquatic birds are often used as a health indicator of the marine ecosystem. African penguins living in the zoo make good research material as they form a link between the marine and the terrestrial ecosystem in terms of xenobiotic circulation. Tests were performed on whole herring—the food of the penguins—as well as on bird muscle, liver, brain, eggs, feathers and guano in order to determine total mercury, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, isodrin, endosulfan isomers, endosulfan sulfate, methoxychlor, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites. In herring and penguin, the tests did not show the presence of β-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, aldrin and isodrin. It was shown that penguins absorb about 36.8 μg of organochlorine pesticides and 4.6 μg of mercury with their food on a daily basis. Xenobiotics accumulate mostly in the liver, from where they are transported to the muscles and the brain, where the highest bioaccumulation factor is reached by endrin and pp’-DDT. Conceivably, the older the penguin, the higher is the concentration level of pesticides in its liver and brain. Molting was found to be the most effective way of eliminating mercury, dieldrin and methoxychlor from the system. Insecticides, such as DDT and its metabolites, were removed most effectively by females through laying of eggs. The standard four eggs laid within a year may have contained up to 20 % of the total amount of pesticides which had been absorbed with food, but no more than 5 % of mercury.