SEABIRD TISSUE ARCHIVAL AND MONITORING PROJECT: Egg Collections and Analytical Results for 2006-2009

Abstract

Since 1999, the Seabird Tissue Archival and Monitoring Project (STAMP) has collected, banked, and analyzed seabird eggs using established protocols to monitor chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated flame retardants, and mercury in Alaska's marine environments. In 2006 and 2008-2009, 594 clutches of murre and gull eggs were obtained and banked at the Marine Environmental Specimen Bank, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), using established protocols. During 2008-2010, 118 of the clutches from 13 Norton Sound-Bering Strait seabird colonies and 6 other nesting locations in the Bering and Chukchi seas and Gulf of Alaska were analyzed by NIST at the

Seabird tissue archival and monitoring project (STAMP) :

“…A major expansion began in 2005 when the NPRB provided three years of funding to STAMP through NPRB Project 0543, "Expanding the Seabird Tissue Archival Project (STAMP) in the North Pacific: Geographic Patterns in Contaminant Residues in Seabird Eggs used in Rural Subsistence Diets." The results of this work were published in Roseneau et al 2008 andVander Pol et al 2009. In 2008, additional support was provided by the NPRB to STAMP for a joint study by USFWS AMNWR, NIST, and Kawerak Inc. in Nome, Alaska, to investigate "Mercury levels in murre and gull eggs harvested for food in the Norton Sound region and potential sources of contamination" (NPRB Project 0822).…”

“…The project was designed to track trends in environmental quality by 1) collecting Alaskan seabird eggs using standardized protocols so to minimize contamination, 2) processing and banking the contents under conditions that ensure chemical stability during long-term (decadal) storage, and 3) analyzing aliquots of the stored material to determine current baseline levels of persistent bioaccumulative contaminants (e.g., chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], brominated flame retardants [PBDEs], butyltin compounds [organotins], and mercury concentrations and isotopes (Vander Pol et al 2009). Methods and protocols were developed for STAMP in 1998 (York et al 2001), and specimen collections began in July 1999.…”

“…Gulls were included because their eggs are an important subsistence food in many coastal regions of Alaska. Also, these two species of gulls feed on a wide variety of fish and invertebrates and also scavenge on marine mammal carcasses and refuse in community dumps and land-fills where they have opportunities to be exposed to relatively high levels of anthropogenic contaminants (Vander Pol et al 2009). Currently, STAMP criteria for selecting study sites and species include the overall geographic distribution and regional importance of the nesting colonies; their locations relative to onshore, nearshore, and offshore environments; the logistical feasibility of collecting eggs at them; the trophic position and foraging strategies of the birds; the foraging habitats used by the birds; and the use of the birds' eggs in rural subsistence diets.…”

“…Overall contaminant patterns and levels in Alaskan seabirds are probably influenced by atmospheric transport of contaminants from Asia eastward and northward into the Gulf of Alaska, oceanic transport from Asia via the eastward flowing North Pacific Current, and the transport of substances into the Bering and Chukchi seas from the Northern Gulf of Alaska via the westward moving Alaskan Stream and Alaskan Coastal Current (Stabeno et al 1999;Li et al 2002). Existing and former military installations may also contribute to local point source "hot spot" pollution patterns in Alaska (Vander Pol et al 2003).…”

“…For recent findings on contaminant levels and the geographic differences that have been found in them see Roseneau et al (2008) andVander Pol et al (2009).…”