Elephant seals are some of the satellite ’s mostelite diving animals . In fact , until about a year ago , they held the mammal phonograph recording for bothlongest and deepest prima donna . Researchers have now recruited these blubbery forager to help them investigate the accumulation of pollutants in the deep sea . Their fat and blood line reveal the mien of long - banish chemical substance such as the pesticide DDT , allot to new finding published inScience of The Total Environment .
As top predator in the northeast Pacific Ocean , northerly elephant seals ( Mirounga angustirostris ) are ingesting various variety of contaminant from their environs . These potential includepersistent organic pollutant ( POPs ) , which attend out for long geological period of meter . The consumption ofDDT , for lesson , was ( mostly ) banned in the U.S. in 1972 . AndPCBs , which are discover in products array from electronics to plastics , were banned in the U.S. in 1979 .
To find out where and what these massive mammals are picking up , a team led bySarah Peterson of UC Santa Cruzexamined the blubber and stemma of free - ramble northern elephant seals before and after their 7 - calendar month - long foraging stumble . For 24 grownup females , the before - and - after samples were obtained from the same seal , who were also satellite tag . For adult and sub - adult males , 14 were sampled before , and 15 unlike seal were taste after . Each time , the researchers calm the sealskin and use a local anesthetic , Sciencedescribes , before they took a sample from the hind wing with a little biopsy punch .
The found that all of the elephant seal of approval had perceptible immersion of DDT , PCBs , and other pop , includingPBDEs , which are used as flame retardant .
Their concentrations , however , alter depend on factors such as sex , geography , and diving behaviour . Males had higher concentrations of all the chemical compare to female . And sealing wax that hunted further from shore – and away from populated areas – had scurvy storey of most chemical substance . Although , they still take in high concentrations of PCBs , Sciencereports , which suggests this chemical substance in all likelihood spreads farther through the ocean than the others .
S.H. Peterson et al . , Science of The Total Environment 2015
