Thinking of buying a seal fur coat? Think again. NewScientist (12 September 2015, paywall) reports that it contains mercury:
SEAL fur may be toxic. Mercury is building up even in pristine areas, and it’s coming from an unexpected source – moulting elephant seals.
Industrial pollution can release mercury into the environment, where it may end up as an organic compound called methylmercury. This is taken up by bacteria, and it builds up in organisms much higher up the food chain, including top predators such as elephant seals.
But it doesn’t end there. “Elephant seals undergo a catastrophic moult,” says Jennifer Cossaboon of San Diego State University in California. “It comes off in big sheets of fur and the top few layers of skin.”
