Experts found high levels of tributyltin, an ingredient used in marine paints to prevent ship's hulls from getting covered in barnacles and algae, at the bottom of the sea floor in McMurdo Sound, it says.

The location is near a turning circle by icebreakers which force a path through Antarctica's pack ice for ships carrying tourists and scientists.

The International Maritime Organisation wants to ban tributyltin-based anti-fouling paints because they harm "non-target" organisms.

One of the victims is a mollusc called the dog whelk, also known as the Atlantic dogwinkle. The chemicals cause females of this species to grow a rudimentary penis that prevents them from reproducing.

TERRA.WIRE