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(3) We seriously need more research on the ultimate disposition of 
hazardous chemicals entering the marine environment. Very little is 
known today as to the extent to which poisonous substances dumped 
off our coast find their way into the marine food chain and are eventu- 
uly ingested by humans, or by livestock that are fed fish products. 
Last January, I testified before the Commission on Marine Boun- 
daries and Resources of the Massachusetts Legislature which was 
chaired by Senator John J. Moakley. The problem being considered 
by the commission was the dumping of a whole series of substances 
ranging from highly toxic heavy metals, such as mercury and beryl- 
lium to harmless materials such as aluminum in Massachusetts Bay. 
I emphasized then, and I repeat just as emphatically now, that we 
should immediately halt dumping of highly toxic material in the 
marine environment. In the time I have available, I would like to 
cite mercury as an example of the seriousness of this problem. 
It has been estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of mercury 
enters the oceans every year by rivers, offshore dumping and through 
the atmosphere (1).* Much of this enters through industrial waste 
although, some finds its pathway through the use of mercury in fun- 
gicides. The entrance of mercury, like many other chemicals, into the 
marine environment was not taken seriously until a rather mysterious 
disease which proved to be mercury poisoning broke out in a small 
city of southern Japan. A factory on Minamata Bay had been dis- 
charging acid waste sludges into the bay for many years. By 1965, 
over 100 people who lived largely on fish and shellfish from the bay 
had become seriously ill with 41 deaths occurring (2). Eventually it 
was proven that the mercury had formed organic compounds which 
were accumulated by the fish and shellfish. 
A second outbreak of this disease occurred in another part of Japan 
also due to the formation of organic mercury compounds in the fish. 
The mercury content of the fish in the bay at that time varied be- 
tween 10 and 55 parts per million (p.p.m.). Patients who died of the 
poisoning had from 22 to 70 parts per million mercury in their liver 
and 144 to 226 parts per million in their kidneys. The repeated eating 
of fish resulted in concentrating the mercury in parts of the human 
body. 
We have had no cases of mercury poisoning from eating fish along 
the Atlantic coast, and, as far as we know, mercury levels in edible 
marine food are well below those reported at Minamata. It is alarm- 
ing to note, however, that at the lower end of the marine food chain 
the mercury contents are apparently high. We recently completed 
some analyses of particulate matter that occurs in the water at various 
depths in the Atlantic Ocean west of Long Island, and also in the 
Gulf of Maine (3). This particulate matter is mainly phytoplank- 
ton, which is the primary food at the very beginning of the marine 
food chain on which all marine life depends for survival and growth. 
* See references. 
