Nitrated extracts of herring gull eggs from seven Lake Ontario colonies in 1977 were analyzed by glass capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Five minor mirex-related compounds were found in addition to mirex and the previously identified 8-monohydromirex (photomirex). The levels (milligrams/kilogram wet weight ± standard deviation) of all seven compounds were determined by high-resolution gas chromatography: 2,8-dihydromirex (0.016 ± 0.005); C10CI10H2 (II), possibly 3,8-dihydromirex (0.011 ± 0.003); 8monohydromirex (0.95 ± 0.14); CioClnH (III), possibly 9monohydromirex (0.077 ± 0.019); 10-monohydromirex (0.199 ± 0.025); mirex (2.58 ± 0.40); and C10CI12 (II) consistent with an isomer of mirex (0.039 ± 0.011). It was concluded that photodegradation was the only feasible mechanism for formation of these compounds, but that mirex and its photoproducts rapidly became sequestered in the ecosystem and protected from further degradation.
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