RESEARCHERS FIND DDT IN BIRDS ON REMOTE ATOLL.

Byline: Les Line The New York Times

As its name suggests, Midway atoll in the North Pacific is a long way from anywhere: 3,100 miles from Los Angeles, 2,400 miles from Tokyo and 1,150 miles from Honolulu at the other end of the Hawaiian Islands chain. But isolation has not protected oceanic birds nesting on Midway from environmental contaminants that originate in distant places. Researchers have found high levels of DDT compounds, PCBs and dioxin-like compounds in black-footed albatross adults, chicks and eggs.

They also have found the telltale effects of exposure to these chemicals, which remain in the environment a long time. Among those effects are deformed embryos, eggshell thinning and what the researchers say is a 3 percent drop in nest productivity.

The results are cause for concern because of the potential for greater harm to albatrosses and other species. PCBs and dioxin-like compounds have caused embryo deaths and chick deformities like crossed bills and club feet in double-crested cormorants, Caspian terns and other fish-eating birds that nest in Great Lakes colonies. The pesticide DDT and its breakdown product DDE gained notoriety 30 years ago in North America when they were blamed for collapsed eggshells that led to population crashes in birds like bald eagles, brown pelicans and peregrine falcons. One of the researchers, Paul Jones, an environmental chemist in New Zealand, has a paper that is to be published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry on the Midway albatrosses. And James P. Ludwig, the head of the research team, presented an abstract of his findings at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society in Honolulu.

"Concentrations of persistent chemicals in black-footed albatrosses on Midway are nearly as great as current levels in bald eagles from the highly contaminated Great Lakes," said Ludwig, a bird population ecologist. Laysan albatrosses, which also breed on Midway, have a significantly lower toxic burden in their blood and eggs, and scientists attribute this to the two species' different feeding habits.

Ludwig, who led an international research team to the atoll, said the pollutants in the birds' diet probably were coming from India, Southeast Asia and Japan.

The discovery came as a surprise, since there was no previous evidence to suggest that high levels of toxic chemicals occurred in sea birds in remote tropical ocean areas. "We chose the Midway albatrosses as representative of a relatively pristine environment," said Rosalind Rolland, a conservation scientist at the World Wildlife Fund in Washington. The organization sponsored the project with financing from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, but the study was halted last year because of budget cuts at the agency, canceling a final season of field work and delaying publication of the team's findings.

A member of the Midway team, John Giesy, a toxicologist at Michigan State University, said: "While albatrosses feed near the top of the food chain, they forage on the open ocean far from continental pollution sources, and we expected to find very low contaminant levels. Our research demonstrates that global controls on the distribution of persistent, bioaccumulative toxic compounds need to be considered. The problem can't be approached on a country-by-country basis."

Black-footed albatross nest productivity on Midway has been reduced by about 3 percent because of the contaminants, Giesy said. So far this effect is nowhere near as serious as the accidental deaths of thousands of adult albatrosses in fishing nets. Nearly 4,500 black-footed albatrosses were killed in drift nets in 1990 alone. "Albatrosses are long-lived birds, and the loss of a young female that could breed for another 30 years is more meaningful than an unhatched egg," Giesy said.

Giesy noted, however, that concentrations of PCBs and dioxin-like chemicals in black-footed albatross eggs were at a threshold where further deposits would be expected to cause adverse population-level effects. "This is especially true because a very small increment in the toxic dose can cause a steep response," Giesy explained.

Ludwig said that amounts of DDT compounds in black-footed albatross eggs were running just under two parts per million. "These are not trivial amounts when you consider that eggshell thinning in a number of birds has been shown to occur at levels of between two and three parts per million.