- checking login information
Loading...Global Whale Study Shows Startling Toxin Levels…Are People Next?
Human-caused pollution, including deadly toxins and heavy metals, are reaching into the farthest corners of the ocean and into the systems of the largest creatures on earth. A report released this week reveals high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in the tissues of whales from around the globe gathered over five years. Roger Payne, the American scientist who headed the research with the Ocean Alliance, has been studying whales for decades.
“The biggest surprise was chromium,” Payne said. “That’s an absolute shocker. Nobody was even looking for it.” Metals like chromium, a known carcinogen used in steel, paints, dyes and leather tanning, was present in over 99% of the 1,000 tissue samples taken from cetaceans around the world.
Even if you didn’t care about whales, the fact remains that they are at the top of the food chain, a reflection of what all of the other creatures are consuming, in even the most remote waters. The fish that some whales eat are also consumed by people—one billion of whom count fish as their primary protein source–and the consequences cannot be avoided. “The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings,” Payne was quoted as saying while attending the recent annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission. “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.”
This is not the first study that has noted the accumulation of contaminants and toxins in whales. An article in The Scientist in 1999 about the accumulation of cadmium in bowhead whales quoted biologist Thomas Goodwin of the NASA Johnson Space Center: “We’re beginning to see a pattern that’s really scary. This is a wake-up call. We’ve got to stop and think about what it is we’re doing to our planet. These whales are at the top of their food chain, and they’re picking up these contaminants from what they’re eating–krill, shrimp, plankton, and all those things, some of which we eat.”
A wakeup call in 1999. We’ve just had another from this study–not to mention the Gulf oil spill, whose effects will be working their way through the food chain for decades. How many wakeup calls will it take?
Take Action: Besides polluting the ocean habitat of whales and other creatures, humans persist in hunting them. Sign the Care2 petition to Close the Whaling Loophole
Read more: cetacean, environment & wildlife, heavy metal, pollution, sustaintmc, toxin, whale
Photo: sanc0605, NOAA's Sanctuaries Collection
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
Recent Comments from Causes
Happy World Turtle Day! I always try to stop to help the turtles cross the road.
Great article! Happy Turtle Day :) beautiful pictures & good advice.
Love Baby ! LOVE !!
meet our writers
144 comments
+ add your ownWe've got to pay attention to this signal
Thanks for posting!
its about time...when did you think it was okai to toxify, kill and pollute everything ..land sea and sky and believe nothing will happen to you Mankind?!!
Wonder if this info has reached the Whale "research" butchers of Japans government who sell the whale meat to their childrens schools
Thanks.
Dont forget to sign the www.thepetitionsite.com/1/consumerstoxin-free-bill-of-rights/
Unfortunately those that control the economy of the world, also have sway over the common man. The bottom line will always take preference and only lip service will be paid to our Planet and its many woes.
it is sad to see what is happening to our once beautiful world, all this is telling us is that JESUS is about to come GET READY AND IT WILL GET WORSE AND WORSE. BE BLESSED.
This is horrible, of course. While BP is destroying the fish in the Gulf, the dispersants are destroying the crops and cities are killing off endangered species in favor of tennis courts, now we have Whales full of cancer causing chemicals. Sometimes it is just overwhelming. The only thing good I see in this horror is maybe the Japanese will stop killing and eating Whales when they start dieing of Chromium poisoning. I know that's not funny. I just couldn't help it. Evil is as evil does.
I pray the majority of the human species does wake up before it's too late
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment