How Does Mercury get into the Environment and Fish?
Once mercury is released into the atmosphere, mercury particles can be carried long distances by wind before falling back to earth. Once it falls back to earth, it lands on the ground or in water. Mercury settles on the bottom of lakes, rivers, ponds, and the ocean. Bacteria in the sediments then convert it to a more toxic form, methyl mercury. The mercury gets into fish from the sediments at the bottom of the water body. Predators at the top of the food chain will have higher mercury levels than the animals they feed upon. This is through a process called biomagnification. Do some of New Hampshire’s Lakes and Ponds have stricter advisories? Yes. The DHHS has issued four additional mercury-based advisories that apply to certain bodies of water, including Horseshoe Pond in Merrimack and three reservoirs (Moore, Comerford, and McIndoes Reservoirs) which are located along the Fifteen Mile Falls chain of the Connecticut River.
