Chemical Pollutants Vs. Marine Mammals

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Chemical Pollutants vs. Marine Mammals One of the primary ways through which humans have caused significant modifications to the wildlife and their habitat is pollution. Pollution results from changes occurring to the physical and chemical characteristics of the environment leading to a harmful influence on wildlife and can cause deaths or an impairment to their health. Marine ecosystems are subject to chemical pollution from sources such as run-off, sewage, radioactive waste, oil drilling, and inadvertent dumping. Dachs and Mejanelle (2010), authors of “Organic Pollutants in Coastal Waters, Sediments, and Biota: A Relevant Driver for Ecosystems During the Anthropocene?,” state that despite the total number of synthetic chemicals not having …show more content…

The bioaccumulation of POPs can be transported up a food chain because of their metabolic recalcitrance and their lipophilic efficiency (Fiedler, 2003). Pesticides, industrial chemicals, by-products of industrial processes, polychlorinated biphenyls, toxaphene, and hexachlorobenzene are some of the deleterious POPs that have been banned by the Stockholm Convention. Jones et. al. (1999) and Beland et. al. (1993) study the adverse effects of POPs in marine mammals, observing that the toxic chemicals caused malignant neoplasms, lesions in the digestive systems, pulmonary lesions, cysts on the adrenal glands, reproductive impairment, and damage to the immune system. Similar deleterious health risks are observed in the Northern and Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) and the Arctic polar bears (Ursus …show more content…

Hickie et. al. (2007) express that polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations are some of the highest in killer whales and that risk of the negative health effects is high when factors such as sex, age, calving order, and dietary preferences are considered. The adverse risks of PCBs killer whales can cause changes to their neurological development, reproductive health, immune function, and endocrine endpoints (Hicke et. al., 2007). Hicke et. al. revealed that the affect on the immune system and the endocrine endpoints varies because of the age and sex of the killer whales (2007). It was revealed that concentration of PCBs decreased from juveniles and young adult males to reproductive females and neonates. Due to PCBs being lipophilic, nursing killer whales were observed to be the most contaminated in a span of one year because the PCBs were transmitted from mothers to their calves through the breast milk. The high level of concentrated PCBs in the calves decreased over a span of 15 years as their diets switched from breast milk to a less contaminated fish diet and as their bodies began to grow, increasing their body mass (Hicke et. al., 2007). Hicke et. al. further explained that reproductive females had lower concentrations because they were able to pass down to their offspring through “[the]

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