When the Kilo Moana returned to port, the 700 seawater samples, collected at sea and sealed in brown bottles, were sent to WHOI, where Kathleen Munson is analyzing them. She is invesitgating whether bacteria convert mercury to monomethylmercury; whether that chemical transformation takes places in mid-water depths of the ocean, where oxygen levels are lower; and whether organic materials such vitamin B12 play important roles in the transformation. (Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)[back]
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