An Inuit man dresses a seal. Seal flesh now has a high level of mercury (Image: Jeff McIntosh / Rex)
FOR Arctic peoples, global warming is not just transforming their land, it is also poisoning their food. Mercury levels in seals and beluga whales eaten by Inuit in northern Canada have reached levels that would be considered unsafe in fish. Now, Gary Stern of in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and colleagues have found that seal meat contains more mercury in low-ice years, suggesting the problem will only get worse.
The team sampled ringed seals caught by…
