During the 1950s and 1960s, Minamata Bay in Japan was the site of widespread mercury poisoning caused by the consumption of fish containing methylmercury—a toxic form of mercury that is synthesized when bacteria react with mercury released in water. Mercury poisoning caused deaths and widespread neurological disorders, as well as intergenerational harm as many of the survivors had children with birth defects. As methylmercury was stored in fish, it continued to remain in the food chain long after the discharge of mercury into the environment has ceased.