The Wildlife Community of Iona Island Jetty, Vancouver, B.C., and Heavy-metal Pollution Effects

Abstract

Marine and terrestial animals have been shown to be particularly abundant in a wildlife community associated with a marine sewer outfall from the City of Vancouver. These same animals are contaminated with high levels of heavy-metals but are apparently protected from their poisonous effects by the production of a protein known as metallothionein. The amount of metallothionein and heavy-metal loading appears to depend primarily on the degree of pollution and secondly on the species of animal and its position in the food-web.