Fish toxins blamed for deaths of river's last remaining sea eagles

[Andrew Taylor <>]

On Thu, Sep 16, 2004 at 08:33:11AM +1000, Stephen Selden wrote:
> The only sea eagles nesting on the Parramatta River
> have both been found dead, possibly after consuming
> fish contaminated with deadly toxins...
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/15/1095221666203.html

What pollutants might be present in Sydney Harbour fish at sufficient
levels to have an acute effect?  I understand how accumulated doses could
be lethal - but this would have to be an acute dose.  And of course fish
with natural deadly toxins are a common in the harbour but presumably
not the cause.

Isn't some sort of poison, perhaps via a mammal carcass, more likely?
Or a pathogen?

I guess these were the WBSE that I'd seen a couple of times soaring over
Glebe - very sad news.

Andrew Taylor
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to