Levels and Temporal Trends (1988−1999) of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada

Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were determined in blubber samples of 54 stranded adult beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) collected between 1988 and 1999 in the St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE), Quebec, Canada. Summed concentrations of 10 PBDE congeners (sigmaPBDEs) measured in beluga samples varied between 20 and almost 1000 ng/g wet weight. According to the PBDE concentrations in marine mammals reported in the scientific literature, SLE belugas appear to be relatively lightly contaminated. Only a few predominant congeners (namely, PBDE-47, -99, and -100) represent on average more than 75% of sigmaPBDEs in SLE belugas. The accumulation of sigmaPBDEs in both male and female belugas showed significant exponential increase throughout the 1988-1999 time period. The time necessary for beluga to double their blubber concentration of the most prevalent PBDE congeners was no longer than 3 years. The PBDE temporal changes reported in this study are generally faster but in agreement with the trend observed in other organisms collected in Canada, such as lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) from the Great Lakes, ringed seal (Phoca hispida), and beluga whale from the Canadian Arctic. Some changes in the pattern of PBDEs in belugas were also observed during the time period investigated. The recent and important increase of PBDE levels in SLE belugas could explain the unexpected lack of statistical difference in PBDE contamination between males and females. This suggests that to date PBDEs tend to be accumulated by both male and female belugas, masking the elimination of PBDEs by females through post-natal transfer to their offspring. This study confirms that the growing use of PBDEs as flame retardants has resulted in rising contamination of Canadian aquatic environments. Additional studies are needed to assess the toxicological implications of the PBDE tissue levels found in SLE belugas.

PBDE levels in franciscana dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei): Temporal trend and geographical comparison

“….7 ng g −1 lw). The higher values in the latter samples confirm the fact that PBDEs, like most other persistent organic pollutants, are found at higher concentrations in environmental matrices collected near industrial or highly populated centers (Lebeuf et al, 2004). Alonso et al (2012) analyzed liver samples of franciscana from different regions of Brazil and found similar concentrations in samples from the FMA III, but lower values than those reported in the present study in the samples from the FMA II.…”

“…However, the concentrations were similar to those found in samples from India and the Philippines , where PBDE levels are considered low. In contrast, total PBDE concentrations in samples from the FMA II were in the middle of the global contamination range, with concentrations similar to those found in the beluga whale (D. leucas) from St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada (Lebeuf et al, 2004) and the bottlenose dolphin (T. truncates) from the Mediterranean coast (Pettersson et al, 2004).…”

“…This lack of significant differences may be due to 1) the considerable individual variation in total PBDE levels; 2) the small sample sizes of pups in the FAM III (Table 1); 3) interference from temporal variation (for FMA III) and 4) the relatively recent introduction of PBDEs compared to DDTs and PCBs. Lack of difference among sex and age/size and PBDE levels were also reported for the beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) and ringed seal (Phoca hispida) from Canada (Lebeuf et al, 2004;Ikonomou et al, 2002), the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) from the North Sea (Kalantzi et al, 2005), and the guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) from southeastern Brazil (Dorneles et al, 2010).…”

“…We confirm that we have provided a current, correct email address which is accessible by the Corresponding Author and which has been configured to accept email from juoceano@gmail.com. (Lebeuf et al, 2004); [6] long-finned pilot whale (Lindström et al, 1999); [7] harbor porpoise (Boon et al, 2002); [8] bottlenose dolphin (Pettersson et al, 2004);[9] spinner dolphin ; [10] Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Ramu et al, 2005); [11] spinner dolphin [12] finless porpoise . Silvina Botta.…”

La contamination du béluga de l’estuaire du Saint-Laurent par les polluants organiques persistants en revue

“…On note une prédominance du congénère BDE-47 représentant à lui seul plus de la moitié des concentrations moyennes de la ∑PBDE dans le gras des bélugas examinés. Les concentrations moyennes les plus faibles ont été rapportées par LEBEUF et al (2004) lipide dans le foie des bélugas. Parmi les 15 composés MeO-PBDE recherchés, seulement deux composés, dont le 6-MeO-BDE-47, ont été détectés (McKINNEY et al, 2006).…”