A new species of duck, the cinnamon teal, landed Wednesday on the state's watch-what-you-eat advisory list for having worrisome levels of toxic mercury.

The state Division of Wildlife, in conjunction with the Department of Health, also revised last year's advisory for common goldeneye and northern shoveler ducks. The agencies said the good news this year is that duck lovers can eat limited amounts of all three species taken from the Great Salt Lake.

In contrast, last year they warned against consuming any of those species.

The general duck season begins in 18 days, so this year's waterfowl advisories come in time for hunters to educate themselves about the high-mercury species and sensible consumption of the affected birds they do shoot.

Marty Wheelwright, an avid hunter and member of the state waterfowl association board, welcomed the new guidance on how much of the affected species it is safe to eat.

"At least now," he said, "you've got the guidelines."

For teal and shovelers, adults should eat no more than two 8-ounce meals per month, and young children and women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should have no more than one 4-ounce meal per month, the advisory says. Women of child-bearing age and children should not eat goldeneye at all, while other adults ought to limit their consumption to one 8-ounce meal of goldeneye a month.

Limiting consumption of the ducks should be easy since all three species on the advisory list are not popular with hunters.

The state's updated advisories also contain some bad news: Mercury will probably continue to be a fact of life for Utah duck hunters for the foreseeable future.

Only a year ago, Utah agencies sent shockwaves into the wildlife world by becoming the first state to issue consumption advisories for waterfowl.

The nation's fishing enthusiasts have grown accustomed to looking out for fish advisories. Utah joined 45 states earlier in the year by cautioning consumers about eating too much fish from three waters, including channel catfish in the Green River's Desolation Canyon, large mouth bass from Gunlock Reservoir in Washington County and brown trout from Mill Creek in Grand County.

This year, mercury has become an issue not only in Utah, but nationwide.

A survey of scientific studies released this week by the National Wildlife Federation suggests mercury is more of a problem than wildlife scientists and advocates had previously suggested.

"From songbirds to alligators, turtles to bats, eagles to otters, mercury is accumulating in nearly every corner of the food chain," said the report's principle author, Catherine Bowes, in a news release.

"This report paints a compelling picture of mercury contamination in the U.S., and many more species are at risk than we previously thought. Fish, long thought to be the key species affected by mercury, are just the tip of the iceberg."

Her assessment is based on the wildlife group's review of more than 65 published scientific studies that found elevated levels of mercury in fish, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, as well as their freshwater, forest and marine habitats. The report, ''Poisoning Wildlife: The Reality of Mercury Pollution,'' can be found at http://www.nwf.org/news, and it highlights the Great Salt Lake shoveler as a species of concern.

Bowes said the only adequate solution would be to phase out mercury from energy production and industrial processes.

"The discovery of mercury in so many different species is a wake-up call," she said.

Nathan Darnall, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said data collected over the past two years has helped sharpen the mercury picture. Now it appears that birds feeding on the Great Salt Lake consistently have higher levels of mercury.

"Based on the data the Fish and Wildlife Service has collected, the wetlands are not a problem," he said.

While patterns like these may help hunters make informed choices about the waterfowl they eat and do not eat, they do not say all species are safe for everyone to eat, Darnall said. He recommended caution, especially when it comes to feeding children Great Salt Lake waterfowl.

Bill Fenimore, a hunter and owner and operator of the Layton Wild Bird Center, said the Utah duck advisories present a conflict for hunters.

"They want to go hunting, but they don't want to waste waterfowl either," he said.

Fenimore, who writes a bird column for The Salt Lake Tribune, also worries that too little is being done to understand the problem.

"That's the real scary part: how do they clean it up" once the sources of mercury are finally pinpointed, he said.

But Wheelwright, the hunter and state waterfowl association board member, said he was not worried by the advisories. He put mercury at 4 on a scale of concern of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most troubling.

"I don't think the mercury advisories have] changed the way we hunt waterfowl," said Wheelwright. "I think it has changed our ability to identify those birds" that tend to be high in mercury.

fahys@sltrib.com

Mercury risk

What is the latest waterfowl advisory for mercury?

The State Department of Health and the Division of Wildlife Resources advises adults to limit consumption of northern shovelers, common goldeneye and cinnamon teal ducks taken from Great Salt Lake marshes. For teal and shovelers, adults should eat no more than two 8-ounce meals per month, women who are pregnant or may become pregnant and young children should have no more than one 4-ounce meal per month. Women and children should not eat goldeneye, while other adults ought to limit their consumption to one 8-ounce meal a month.

How do I identify the species?

Check out the 2006 Waterfowl Proclamation for an illustration of a shoveler. Photos of common goldeneye and common teal can be found on the Web at http://health.utah.gov/epi/enviroepi/.

Can I still shoot those species?

Yes, but laws require hunters to retrieve any shot ducks. That means teal, shovelers or goldeneye killed this season will count in the daily bag limit.

What about eating other duck species?

None of the other seven species tested averaged high enough levels of mercury for an advisory. These birds included the popular mallards, northern pintails and green-winged teal.