By Jacoba Charles
Bay margins are often mucky, fertile, out-of-the-way places. In the last decade, however, the edges of the San Francisco Bay have caught the attention of San Francisco Estuary Institute scientists as unexpected sources of pollution–and, potentially, of solutions. “The idea that you could make a big difference by just cleaning up the margins is attractive because it scales down the problem quite a bit,” says Phil Trowbridge of the Regional Monitoring Program. Historically, scientists considered the Bay akin to a massive bathtub where water pours in, mixes up, and bathes all its contents equally. A 2010 study made the surprising discovery that small fish living in the margins had higher concentrations of PCBs than larger, open water fish. While challenges remain, at least scientists are now looking for the results of their cleanup efforts in the right places.
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