WELLS (AP) – Researchers said Monday they found mercury in songbirds found in New England’s estuaries and wildlife refuges, indicating that mercury contamination is not limited to the region’s freshwater lakes and ponds.

The BioDiversity Research Institute released its findings on the saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow at Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, which encompasses part of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge.

Sen. Susan Collins, who was on hand for the news conference, renewed her call for Congress to pass the National Mercury Monitoring Establishment Act, which she introduced with Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.

“Each new scientific study seems to find higher levels of mercury in more ecosystems and in more species than we had previously thought,” Collins said. “We must have more comprehensive information and we must have it soon.”

The three-year survey of the sparrows by the BioDiversity Research Institute was based on data from 220 individual birds.

All of the birds had elevated mercury levels with some as high as 3.2 parts per million, well above the concentration believed to cause adverse effects in songbirds and the levels often found in common loons and bald eagles.

Unlike loons and eagles, which feed on freshwater fish, the salt marsh sharp-tailed sparrow survives on insects and nuts.

The birds were tested at 11 sites including four national wildlife refuges: Rachel Carson in Kennebunk, Maine; Parker River on Plum Island, Mass.; Stewart B. McKinney in Westport, Conn.; and Ninigret in Narragansett, R.I.

“We were surprised to find such elevated mercury in all the sparrows we sampled in national wildlife refuges set aside to protect birds,” said Oksana Lane, biologist with the BioDiversity Research Institute and a lead author of the study.

David Evers, executive director of BioDiversity Research Institute, said Collins’ bill would go a long way toward tracking how mercury finds its way into birds.

“Not only are large amounts of toxic mercury still released into our ecosystems, but the federal government has yet to put a system in place that will track where the mercury pollution is going, what impact it’s having, and what difference public policies are making,” he said.

Based in Gorham, Maine, BioDiversity Research Institute is a nonprofit ecological research group dedicated to environmental study and education. The research was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

AP-ES-08-27-07 1627EDT

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