Post by LSDeep on Apr 7, 2006 21:18:54 GMT -5
By Kristen Green, Globe Correspondent | April 6, 2006
A Lincoln nonprofit's around-the-world journey to study whales has determined that pollutants dumped in the ocean are being stored in the animals' fat.
Preliminary analysis of small samples of skin and blubber taken from 960 sperm whales has shown unsafe levels of persistent organic pollutants, such as PCBs, and heavy metals, such as mercury and chromium, said Iain Kerr, chief executive of the Ocean Alliance.
The group found that some sperm whales were exposed to such high levels of chromium that it damaged their DNA, Kerr said when reached at his Lincoln office this week.
The findings suggest that humans could also be at risk if they eat fish at the top of the ocean's food chain, said Kerr, who will present preliminary findings at a Cambridge fund-raising dinner tonight.
Between half and three-quarters of the world's population, he said, rely on fish as their primary source of protein.
''We may have stumbled upon an enormous health risk here," said Kerr, a resident of Acton.
The scientists were able to determine through sophisticated tests where whales consumed much of their food.
This, in turn, allowed them to pinpoint the most heavily polluted areas of the Pacific Ocean.
Kerr said the group, whose scientists took a five-year, 87,000-mile journey, had gone to ''the remotest locations on the planet" where pollution tests had not yet been done on the oceans.
''We did not expect to find such high levels of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants in these locations," Kerr said.
Tonight, the Ocean Alliance is hosting a fund-raising dinner to help pay for the analysis of the data collected during the $7 million voyage, which ended in Boston in August.
The 93-foot Odyssey set sail from Monterey Bay, Calif., in March 2000, spending time in each of the world's oceans and visiting some of the tiniest islands. It stopped in 121 ports and visited 21 countries.
A crew of up to 10 people, which included scientists, educators, and a captain and deckhands, rode up next to whales, extracting small tissue samples by shooting a crossbow with a specially designed arrow that would bounce off the animal, pulling with it a plug of skin and blubber.
Kerr, who spent an average of three months a year with the crew, compared it to ''biopsying a school bus."
Kerr said the results have made him want to follow up by visiting nine island nations to do a comprehensive study of the species, including the humans, living there.
''The whales are incredibly polluted. It makes sense to me maybe the islanders are, too," he said.
He also wants to do a follow-up around-the-world trip.
Roger Payne, who the Alliance says was the first scientist to discover that whales sing, founded the Ocean Alliance as The Whale Conservation Institute in 1970.
In 1979, he told National Geographic that he believed pollution could replace the harpoon as the ''next mortal threat to whales."
Eight people work at the headquarters of the organization on Weston Road in Lincoln, which is dedicated to the conservation of whales and the ocean.
www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/06/study_finds_pollutants_in_whales/
A Lincoln nonprofit's around-the-world journey to study whales has determined that pollutants dumped in the ocean are being stored in the animals' fat.
Preliminary analysis of small samples of skin and blubber taken from 960 sperm whales has shown unsafe levels of persistent organic pollutants, such as PCBs, and heavy metals, such as mercury and chromium, said Iain Kerr, chief executive of the Ocean Alliance.
The group found that some sperm whales were exposed to such high levels of chromium that it damaged their DNA, Kerr said when reached at his Lincoln office this week.
The findings suggest that humans could also be at risk if they eat fish at the top of the ocean's food chain, said Kerr, who will present preliminary findings at a Cambridge fund-raising dinner tonight.
Between half and three-quarters of the world's population, he said, rely on fish as their primary source of protein.
''We may have stumbled upon an enormous health risk here," said Kerr, a resident of Acton.
The scientists were able to determine through sophisticated tests where whales consumed much of their food.
This, in turn, allowed them to pinpoint the most heavily polluted areas of the Pacific Ocean.
Kerr said the group, whose scientists took a five-year, 87,000-mile journey, had gone to ''the remotest locations on the planet" where pollution tests had not yet been done on the oceans.
''We did not expect to find such high levels of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants in these locations," Kerr said.
Tonight, the Ocean Alliance is hosting a fund-raising dinner to help pay for the analysis of the data collected during the $7 million voyage, which ended in Boston in August.
The 93-foot Odyssey set sail from Monterey Bay, Calif., in March 2000, spending time in each of the world's oceans and visiting some of the tiniest islands. It stopped in 121 ports and visited 21 countries.
A crew of up to 10 people, which included scientists, educators, and a captain and deckhands, rode up next to whales, extracting small tissue samples by shooting a crossbow with a specially designed arrow that would bounce off the animal, pulling with it a plug of skin and blubber.
Kerr, who spent an average of three months a year with the crew, compared it to ''biopsying a school bus."
Kerr said the results have made him want to follow up by visiting nine island nations to do a comprehensive study of the species, including the humans, living there.
''The whales are incredibly polluted. It makes sense to me maybe the islanders are, too," he said.
He also wants to do a follow-up around-the-world trip.
Roger Payne, who the Alliance says was the first scientist to discover that whales sing, founded the Ocean Alliance as The Whale Conservation Institute in 1970.
In 1979, he told National Geographic that he believed pollution could replace the harpoon as the ''next mortal threat to whales."
Eight people work at the headquarters of the organization on Weston Road in Lincoln, which is dedicated to the conservation of whales and the ocean.
www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/06/study_finds_pollutants_in_whales/