AP press release on heavy metals and the whales...

[Guest guest]

This report just popped up on my screen.  Grrrr!

~Robin

Report: Toxins found in whales bode ill for humans

http://news./s/ap/20100624/ap_on_sc/whaling

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer Arthur Max, Associated Press Writer –

56 mins ago

AGADIR, Morocco – Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of

Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals,

according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for

marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.

A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium,

lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from

nearly 1,000 whales over five years. From polar areas to equatorial waters, the

whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of

miles away, the researchers said.

" These contaminants, I think, are threatening the human food supply. They

certainly are threatening the whales and the other animals that live in the

ocean, " said biologist Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the

research and conservation group that produced the report.

The researchers found mercury as high as 16 parts per million in the whales.

Fish high in mercury such as shark and swordfish — the types health experts

warn children and pregnant women to avoid — typically have levels of about 1

part per million.

The whales studied averaged 2.4 parts of mercury per million, but the report's

authors said their internal organs probably had much higher levels than the skin

samples contained.

" The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of

which have been released by human beings, " Payne said in an interview on the

sidelines of the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting.

Payne said sperm whales, which occupy the top of the food chain, absorb the

contaminants and pass them on to the next generation when a female nurses her

calf. " What she's actually doing is dumping her lifetime accumulation of that

fat-soluble stuff into her baby, " he said, and each generation passes on more to

the next.

Ultimately, he said, the contaminants could jeopardize seafood, a primary source

of animal protein for 1 billion people.

" You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest

health threat that has ever faced the human species. I suspect this will shorten

lives, if it turns out that this is what's going on, " he said.

Payne called his group's $5 million project the most comprehensive report ever

done on ocean pollutants.

U.S. Whaling Commissioner Medina informed the 88 member nations of the

whaling commission of the report and urged the commission to conduct further

research.

The report " is right on target " for raising issues critical to humans as well as

whales, Medina told The Associated Press. " We need to know much more about these

problems. "

Payne, 75, is best known for his 1968 discovery and recordings of songs by

humpback whales, and for finding that some whale species can communicate with

each other over thousands of miles.

The 93-foot Odyssey, a sail-and-motor ketch, set out in March 2000 from San

Diego to document the oceans' health, collecting pencil-eraser-sized samples

using a dart gun that barely made the whales flinch.

After more than five years and 87,000 miles, samples had been taken from 955

whales. The samples were sent for analysis to marine toxicologist Wise at

the University of Southern Maine. DNA was compared to ensure the animals were

not tested more than once.

Payne said the original objective of the voyage was to measure chemicals known

as persistent organic pollutants, and the study of metals was an afterthought.

The researchers were stunned with the results. " That's where the shocking, sort

of jaw-dropping concentrations exist, " Payne said.

Though it was impossible to know where the whales had been, Payne said the

contamination was embedded in the blubber of males formed in the frigid polar

regions, indicating that the animals had ingested the metals far from where they

were emitted.

" When you're working with a synthetic chemical which never existed in nature

before and you find it in a whale which came from the Arctic or Antarctic, it

tells you that was made by people and it got into the whale, " he said.

How that happened is unclear, but the contaminants likely were carried by wind

or ocean currents, or were eaten by the sperm whales' prey.

Sperm whales are toothed whales that eat all kinds of fish, even sharks. Dozens

have been taken by whaling ships in the past decade. Most of the whales hunted

by the whaling countries of Japan, Norway and Iceland are minke whales, which

are baleen whales that feed largely on tiny krill.

Chromium, an industrial pollutant that causes cancer in humans, was found in all

but two of the 361 sperm whale samples that were tested for it. Those findings

were published last year in the scientific journal Chemosphere.

" The biggest surprise was chromium, " Payne said. " That's an absolute shocker.

Nobody was even looking for it. "

The corrosion-resistant metal is used in stainless steel, paints, dyes and the

tanning of leather. It can cause lung cancer in people who work in industries

where it is commonly used, and was the focus of the California environmental

lawsuit that gained fame in the movie " Brockovich. "

It was impossible to say from the samples whether any of the whales suffered

diseases, but Wise found that the concentration of chromium found in whales was

several times higher than the level required to kill healthy cells in a Petri

dish, Payne said.

He said another surprise was the high concentrations of aluminum, which is used

in packaging, cooking pots and water treatment. Its effects are unknown. (**I

could bring my kid over and show you the EFFECTS!!!!!!!!**)

The consequences of the metals could be horrific for both whale and man, he

said.   " I don't see any future for whale species except extinction, " Payne

said. " This is not on anybody's radar, no government's radar anywhere, and I

think it should be. "