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This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

Living at the top of the food chain, sharks can accumulate dangerous levels of methylmercury,

so much that pregnant women and children are advised not to eat shark at all. But sharks can

accumulate another toxin, too, called BMAA, which has been linked to the development of neurodegenerative disease,

which could be bad news for shark eaters.

Mercury in combination with BMAA is a one-two punch.

Deborah MASH, Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.

These are two synergistic toxins. So even if there are low levels of exposure from the

mercury or the BMA, when humans are exposed to both of these toxins, then they will have

a synergistic effect on the nervous system. BMA starts out in cyanobacteria, and it travels up the food chain

through crabs and shrimp and fish. And as previous studies have shown, it makes it all the way to sharks.

What Mash and her colleagues wanted to know was how widespread the problem was, and if the chemical

often appeared alongside mercury. So they analyzed fin and muscle samples from 10 species of shark,

55 individuals overall, from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. And they found BMAA and

Mercury in all 10 species, suggesting that exposure to that one-two punch could be pretty common.

The results are in the journal, Toxins. It's still not clear at this point what sort

of risk this occasional exposure through food might have. Still, MASH isn't waiting.

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