Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - images: animal blawg/utah

Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute are focusing on new research in the oceans mercury content. Mercury changes between gas, liquid and solid very easily and because of this it is a unique metal. The metal exists in various forms and one type of mercury found in fish is monomethylmercury. This type of mercury is found in fish in relatively high concentrations. Its health impact on humans is neurological causing a block in the neurological development of fetuses in pregnant women who eat large amounts of fish. The path from elemental mercury, a different form of mercury released from burning coal has made its way into the ocean and into the fish that we eat.