The species Baffinia multisetosa Wesenberg-Lund, 1950 is synonymized with Terebella hesslei Annenkova, 1924. The genus Baffinia is retained, resulting in the new combination Baffinia hesslei. The taxonomic position of this species within the Terebellidae is discussed, and two new records from eastern Canada are reported.

Niue Island, a raised coralline atoll in the South Pacific, has soils that have long been known to have strongly anomalous radioactivity. We now show that there is also a highly anomalous Hg content in the soils. It is associated with the radioactivity and the goethite/gibbsite content and the values are as high as those in soils over known Hg-mineralisation in volcanic settings, though no mineralisation is known on Niue and such an occurrence on this coral island would be geochemically unusual.