Concentrations of some legacy pollutants have increased in South Australian bottlenose dolphins from 1989 to 2014

A Review of Hydroxylated and Methoxylated Brominated Diphenyl Ethers in Marine Environments

“…For example, only 6-MeO-BDE 47 was detected in humpback whales breeding in the Indian Ocean [61] and only 6-MeO-BDE 47, 2 -MeO-BDE 68 and 6-MeO-BDE 85 of 15 MeO-PBDEs were detected in ringed seals from East Greenland [59]. The predominance of 6-MeO-BDE 47 and 2 -MeO-BDE 68 was also observed in dolphins, whales and harbour seals from other areas in the world [62,64,66,67].…”

“…Moreover, significantly higher concentration levels (600-210,000 ng/g lw) of MeO-PBDEs were also observed in dolphins from Zanzibar, Tanzania, which is also influenced by the upwelling phenomenon [79]. In addition, higher water temperature is also used to explain the higher MeO-PBDEs in marine mammals, as higher water temperatures could be responsible for an increased activity of MeO-PBDE-producing algae or sponges [66].…”

The Concentration and Biomagnification of Pcbs and Pbdes Across Four Trophic Levels in a Marine Food Web

“…Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to PCB concentrations normalised to the concentration of CB153 to remove the variance associated with differences in absolute values of concentration between samples and produce relative contaminant patterns (Méndez-Fernandez et al, 2017). CB153 was selected due to its resistance to biotransformation and dominance in aquatic PCB profiles J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f (Bodin et al, 2008;Batang et al, 2016;Weijs et al, 2020a;Romanić et al, 2021). PCA was used in R Studio (version 3.6.2) to investigate variations in PCB patterns.…”

Global PBDE contamination in cetaceans. A critical review

“…An increase of PBDE levels was observed from 1989 to 1995 (range: 80-91 ng/g l.w. blubber) and from 2009 to 2014 (range: 23-1851 ng/g l. w. blubber) in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) from Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent (South Australia), with a difference of at least one order of magnitude between the two study periods (Weijs et al, 2020). Concentrations were in general higher than those reported for other odontocetes from Australia, normally ranging between 4.3 and 440 ng/g l.w.…”

“…As shown in Table 1, upward trends prior to 1990s and earlier 2000s have been reported in the Northwest Pacific Ocean in finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides) (South China) and melon headed-whales (Peponocephala electra) (Japan) (Kajiwara et al, 2008(Kajiwara et al, , 2006Ramu et al, 2006); in the Northeast Pacific and Northwest Atlantic Ocean in beluga whales (Canada, Alaska) (Hoguet et al, 2013;Lebeuf et al, 2004); in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean in long-finned pilot whales (Faroe Islands), white-sided dolphins (Faroe Islands) and fin whales (Balenoptera physalus) (Iceland) (Rotander et al, 2012); in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean in franciscana dolphins (Pontoporia blainvillei) (Brazil) (Leonel et al, 2014); in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin from South Australia (Weijs et al, 2020). On the other hand, only one study showed clearly downward trends during the 1990s and 2018s in Mediterranean striped dolphins (Aznar-Alemany et al, 2021), whereas Law et al ( 2010) reported a decreased trend in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) from United Kingdom between 1998 and 2008.…”