Heavy Metals in Tissues and Organs of the Narwhal (Monodon monoceros)

Abstract

Sixty narwhals (Monodon monoceros) were sampled in the vicinity of Pond Inlet, N.W.T., during the summer of 1978 and 1979. Concentrations of Pb, Cu, Cd, Hg, Se, As, and Zn were measured in liver, kidney, muscle, and blubber. All elements except As were lowest in concentration in the blubber and highest in kidney and liver; Cd and Zn were generally higher in kidney than in liver, while the converse was true for Pb, Cu, and Hg. Cadmium levels in liver and kidney had high interanimal variability but were generally higher than would be expected based on existing marine mammal Cd content data. Certain metals were correlated with animal size and sex. Mercury in kidney, muscle, and blubber and Cd in muscle appear to accumulate during growth. A number of interelement associations with extremely high probabilities were found: among them, that between Hg and Se and Cd and Zn in liver and kidney tissues. The latter association is thought to be related to the presence of metallothionein. The data presented are discussed in terms of what little is known of the biology of the narwhal and represent a baseline for a resource organism which is harvested in an area already subject to mining activity, the level of which is due to increase in the future.

Stranded cetaceans as indicators of mercury pollution in the Mediterranean Sea

“…This is probably due to the fact that the kidney stores a nonnegligible fraction of the metal and is also involved in the process of elimination. However, Wagemann et al (1983), reported low percentages of methylmercury in kidney of narwhal whales suggesting that efficient demethylase processes for methylmercury occur also in this organ. Relatively high concentrations of Hg were found in lung samples of adult specimens of T. truncatus (Table I).…”

Ecological and biological factors controlling the concentrations of trace elements (As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Se, Zn) in delpinids Globicephala melas from the North Atlantic Ocean

“…Metal concentrations in pilot whales Globicephala melas Traill, 1809 caught in the drive fishery of the Faroe Islands in 1977 and 1978 (Julshamn et al 1987) were generally higher than those encountered in other species (Johansen e t al. 1980, Helle 1981, Falconer et al 1983, Wagemann et al 1983, Ronald et al 1984, Andre et al 1990a, b, 1991. A significant fraction (about 75 %) of the population of pilot whales sampled off the Faroe Islands had blood Cd concentrations higher than minimum adverse-effect levels established for humans (Caurant & Amiard-Triquet unpubl.).…”

Lead contamination of small cetaceans in European waters – The use of stable isotopes for identifying the sources of lead exposure

“…As an example, a bioaccumulation factor of 0.07 has been shown between fish and cetaceans in the Arctic food web (Muir et al, 1992). Most of the studies dealing with Pb in marine mammals have been carried out on soft tissues, in which Pb concentrations are often very low (less than 1 lg g À1 wet weight) (Honda et al, 1983;Wagemann et al, 1983;Storelli et al, 1999;Cardellicchio, 1995;Cardellicchio et al, 2002). Among the soft tissues, liver and kidney exhibit the higher Pb concentrations (Thompson, 1990;Ma, 1996), followed by skin (Fujise et al, 1988;Yang et al, 2002), and lastly brain and muscle (Thompson, 1990;Ma, 1996).…”