Effect of climate change on diet and contaminant exposure in seabirds breeding in northern Hudson Bay

Thick-billed murres (Uria lomvia) breeding on Prince Leopold Island on Lancaster Sound have been monitored for contaminants since 1975 and those breeding on Coats Island in northern Hudson Bay have been monitored since 1993. There has been a dramatic change in d15N values in eggs of Coats Island murres between 1993 and 1998 which corresponds with a change in diet from arctic cod and benthic fish species to capelin and sandlance. We propose to analyze fish samples collected from Coats Island for total Hg, OCs/PCBs/BFRs and PFCs to determine if the different fish species have different contaminant profiles which would affect the exposure of the birds to contaminants through their diet on the breeding grounds.