Weekend video: How mercury left behind at old Nova Scotia gold mining sites continues to enter the food chain
In this short 2018 video Molly Leblanc, a species at risk and biodiversity biologist with Coastal Action, talks about the roughly one million ounces of mercury left behind by mining companies in Nova Scotia, typically dumped in nearby wetlands.
“I’m starting with the little critters low on the food chain, wetland insects. What I found is that insects from these goldmine sites have mercury levels 50 times higher than insects from clean healthy wetlands. And in species like dragonflies and mayflies, which shed their skin, hatch in the water and fly away.”