Source: Radio New Zealand
A sperm whale offshore can accumulate just as many ‘forever chemicals’ as an inshore Maui dolphin, new data suggests. AFP / FRANCO BANFI
Surprisingly spread-out levels of ‘forever chemicals’ have been found in many kinds of whales in New Zealand waters.
Man-made PFAS chemicals are common in consumer products and impact human health, and new trans-Tasman research has looked at how whales and dolphins have been exposed to them.
Massey University Professor Karen Stockin – who led the study – says her team expected that it would be crucial where a whale spent its time, but it was not.
“While we might expect a sperm whale offshore to have less exposure to PFAS and therefore accumulate less than an inshore Maui dolphin, that did not at all in the modelling prove to be the case.
“Instead, what proved to be the case is your sex, if you’re male or female, your stage in life,” said Stockin.
Massey University Professor Karen Stockin Supplied
Species feeding mid-water – like false killer whales and common dolphins – were just as exposed to PFAS as coastal Māui dolphins or deep-diving species like beaked whales.
Newly first-born whales had the highest levels due to “offloading” by their mothers of their own accumulated PFAS. Males had higher levels than females, also due to such offloading.
The new data raised questions about how whales were being exposed to the 14,000 different types of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and concerns about the impact on the ocean.
“Really the biggest alarm bell for me is the fact the ocean of course is the final sink… that’s where it all goes,” and life on land depended on the oceans, said Stockin.
Supplied
They looked at Massey University’s tissue archive of 127 stranded toothed whales and dolphins from 16 species, eight of which had never been examined like this for PFAS levels before.
It was “the most comprehensive snapshot of PFAS in NZ marine mammals to date”, said Massey.
PFAS has been linked to some cancers, high cholesterol and reduced immunity in humans.
It could be one reason why first-born whales of some species were known to be the most likely to die, Stockin said.
Auckland’s Dr Shan Yi was now working to develop models to test health impacts on animals.
Stockin’s team was also intrigued that its assumption whales were getting most of their PFAS from food might not hold water. They could be exposed in many ways, including through the water itself on their porous skin, when they return to breathe on the surface water. Another project was looking at that possibility.
A study of PFCS – also known as ‘forever chemicals’ – looked at how they accumulated in marine life. Supplied
“This confirms that PFAS are everywhere in the marine environment, and we still don’t fully understand their impact, especially on predator species like whales and dolphins,” said Louis Tremblay, an ecotoxicologist at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, which – along with the University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, and University of Auckland – helped with the research.
PFAS spread quickly in water and bioaccumulate in organs.
Contamination around NZ defence bases came from firefighting foam that has been banned. It sparked the building of a new water scheme outside Ohakea in recent years, but there has been little research since then in this country into the levels in groundwater or other water, even though PFAS legal action and clean-ups remain big business in the US and Europe.
Stockin said for New Zealanders, the level of PFAS in whales might suggest it is in the kaimoana people eat at levels, and they might want to understand more about.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
