Dear colleagues:
Wanted to share an opportunity for media and corporate writers and photographers to join an engaging and experienced wildlife biologist in the field - plenty of photo and quote opps here. Interviews are also available in French. Background information and photographs are available on request.
Full information follows my signature. Please feel free to share with other colleagues.
Regards,
Julie
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Visit our Web sites @ www.on.ec.gc.ca/wildlife
Contact information:
Julie Suzanne Pollock
Head, Wildlife Outreach & Science Liaison Section
Tel: 416 739-5827
E-mail: Julie.Pollock@ec.gc.ca
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Environment Canada www.ec.gc.ca
Media Advisory
MEDIA INVITED TO FIELD EXCURSIONS FOR
CONTAMINANTS MONITORING IN HERRING GULL EGGS
TORONTO, April 8, 2004 - Media representatives are advised that Environment Canada will host members of the media on field excursions in the Great Lakes region, in recognition of the 30th consecutive year of the Great Lakes Herring Gull Egg Contaminants Monitoring Program. Led by Dr. Chip Weseloh, the program examines annual contaminants levels in Herring Gulls and occasionally other Great Lakes colonial waterbirds.
Event: Field Excursions to Monitoring Locations
Dates: April 24 to July 5
(Egg collection: From the last week of April to May 6)
Locations: Bruce Peninsula (Chantry Island) (1 day)
Detroit River (Fighting Island) (1 day)
Eastern Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River (1-2 days)
Middle Island in western Lake Erie (2 days)
Toronto Harbour (Leslie Street Spit) (half a day)
Northern Lake Huron and eastern Lake Superior (3 days)
Contaminants in gulls - which are at or near the top of the aquatic food web - are one million times more concentrated than they are in water. As a result, chemicals can be identified in the Herring Gull early and efficiently.
Since the early 1970s, concentrations of most major contaminants in gull eggs have been reduced by up to 95 per cent, in response to various initiatives which have curbed or reduced the release of pollutants into the environment. For more than a decade, most waterbird populations have rebounded; however, genetic and physiological effects can still be found. A relatively new family of contaminants has been discovered which is rapidly increasing in Great Lakes gulls: brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs) – flame retardants used in plastics and furniture. These are widespread in Herring Gulls throughout the Great Lakes.
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For more information, please contact:
Ian Parsons
Environment Canada
(416) 739-5826