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Santa Cruz mountain lions found with elevated levels of mercury linked to coastal fog, study finds
The Central Coast’s marine fog is bringing more than cool temperatures. A new study shows there is mercury in the fog that is linked to elevated levels of mercury in mountain lions. “We admire mountain lions, we fear mountain lions, they are our competition with us in some ways because they will eat livestock. But we depend on there being mountain lions,” said Peter Weiss-Penzias, associate researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The study was published Tuesday by researchers at UC Santa Cruz, including its lead author, Weiss-Penzias, who is an environmental toxicologist. The study discovered high levels of mercury in mountain lions from the Santa Cruz Mountains. The neurotoxin is coming out of the ocean through a process that happens in the deep ocean involving mercury. “Comes out of the ocean, into the atmosphere where the fog acts as a stabilizing medium to absorb the mercury and waft over to land,” Weiss-Penzias said.
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