=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #399
—July 21, 1994—
News and resources for environmental justice.
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CANARIES IN THE OCEAN
Does pollution really matter? Just look at the oceans. In Puget
Sound in the far northwest, the Pacific salmon and steelhead are
gone; this year for the first time there will be no Pacific
salmon fishing at all.
Near Gloucester and New Bedford, Massachusetts, the oldest U.S.
fishing grounds, the three main commercial fish –cod, haddock,
and flounder –have all but disappeared. The fishing grounds are
barren and the Atlantic fishermen have asked the federal
government to treat them like earthquake disaster victims. [1]
In the Chesapeake Bay, where oysters were once abundant beyond
imagining, they are now scarce and stunted by disease.
Researchers at University of Maryland say the oysters’ immune
systems have been weakened by pollution; now disease and
overfishing are wiping them out. [2] In the Gulf of Mexico,
grouper and red snapper have always been bounteous, but no more.
Worldwide, 13 of 17 principal fishing zones are depleted or in
steep decline. The causes? Pollution and overfishing, United
Nations and U.S. government experts agree. [1]
If the fish are being harmed by contamination what about other
marine species –the sea turtles, the walruses, the sea lions,
and the seals?
Between 1986 and 1991, green sea turtles began appearing with
massive tumors called fibropapillomas. Up to half of all turtles
of this species now have these huge growths which can kill them
by impeding their ability to swim and eat. The fibropapillomas
have been linked to infection by a herpes-like virus. [3]
In 1987, seals in Siberia’s Lake Baikal died in large numbers
from a distemper virus –one later recognized as quite similar to
the distemper microbe that kills dogs, foxes and wolves by
damaging their respiratory, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems.
In 1988, white-sided dolphins experienced a mysterious, lethal
epidemic in the waters off Lubec, Maine. That same year in the
North and Baltic Seas, some 25,000 harbor seals –about 60 to 70%
of all the seals living there –abruptly died. Subsequent
investigation identified the source of the epidemic as the
canine-like distemper virus.
In 1989, 274 bottlenosed dolphins were found dead along the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, many of them covered with a strange
fungus. Between 1990 and 1992 more than 1000 Mediterranean
striped dolphins died of an infection resembling canine
distemper. Tests on the bodies of seals from the Gulf and from
the Mediterranean revealed high levels of PCBs [polychlorinated
biphenyls] in their tissues. PCBs are industrial chemicals
spread throughout the planet by a single chemical company, and
its licensees, between 1929 and 1976.
All these episodes involved populations of animals that carried
high levels of organochlorine compounds in their tissues. Now
scientists in the Netherlands have evidence that industrial
pollution damages the immune systems of marine mammals. [4]
In a controlled experiment, Dutch virologist Albert D.M.E.
Osterhaus of Erasmus University in Rotterdam fed two groups of
harbor seals fish from different sources. One group of seals
received relatively clean fish from the North Atlantic and the
other group received fish from the industrially-polluted Baltic
sea. The Baltic fish contained 10 times as much organochlorine
pollution as the Atlantic fish. Osterhaus emphasizes that both
kinds of fish were taken from catches destined for human
consumption.
For 2 years, the researchers sampled blood from the seals every
six to nine weeks and made various measurements of immune system
function. Almost immediately after the experiment began, vitamin
A levels dropped 20 to 40 percent in the blood of seals fed fish
from the Baltic and remained low throughout the 2-year
experiment. Vitamin A is associated with disease resistance;
lower vitamin A levels in the blood correspond to greater
vulnerability to disease.
The Baltic-fed seals showed other changes in their blood. The
concentration of granulocytes was consistently elevated 10 to 15
percent, compared to the Atlantic-fed seals. Granulocytes are
white blood cells that fight bacterial infections. Osterhaus
speculates that the Baltic-fed seals may have suffered from
higher levels of chronic infection.
Seals fed Baltic fish showed another important change: the level
of NK cells in the blood remained 20 to 50 percent below normal
throughout the study. NK cells are “natural killer” cells that
attack foreign bodies in the blood, thus providing important
immune protection.
Other key components of the immune system were compromised in the
Baltic-fed seals. In a healthy immune system, B cells produce
antibodies and T cells orchestrate the immune response to foreign
invaders. In the Baltic-fed seals, the T-cell response to a
standard set of antigens dropped 25 to 60 percent, compared to
the Atlantic-fed seals. After interviewing Osterhaus, Janet
Raloff reported in SCIENCE NEWS that, “Additional, unpublished
data suggest that the antibody responses of B cells also were
impaired.”
The Osterhaus experiments are not the final word on what’s been
killing seals for the last 10 years, but they are highly
suggestive that pollution harms the immune system of marine
mammals. Because they have large stores of blubber, because
organochlorine compounds accumulate in fat, and because they eat
high on the food chain, marine mammals tend to collect
organochlorine compounds in their bodies. During periods of
stress (such as illness or famine) these organochlorine compounds
can move back into the blood stream and be distributed throughout
the body.
Last December a group of wildlife specialists, representing
diverse disciplines, met to discuss the global situation. In
April they issued a joint statement that said, in part, [5]
“We are certain of the following:
“Declines in a number of species and many taxa (including plants)
are in progress on the North American continent. Some of these
declines are related to exposure to man-made chemicals. Such
declines are not solely a U.S. or North American problem but are
occurring on a global scale….
“Populations of many long-lived species are declining, some to
the verge of extinction, without society’s knowledge….
“Wildlife are exposed to compounds [industrial chemicals] that
disrupt development of the reproductive, immune, nervous and
endocrine systems and thereby can lead to population instability.
The pollutants of greatest concern affect cellular and molecular
processes that regulate developmental, endocrine, and
immunological functions….
“Chemical releases on one continent may not only affect animals
on that continent but animals on other continents and in other
hemispheres. They are carried as particulates or gases in the
air, surface waters, groundwater, and ocean currents across or
between continents and by animals that travel long distances from
the site of contamination. The contaminant, therefore, can enter
the food web in places remote from the site of release….
“Contamination of apparently useful habitat is not always visible
and may not cause overt lethality. Instead, contaminants may
cause population-threatening changes in functionality. For
example, populations may not be able to recover from infectious
diseases because of: immunosuppression; the inability to obtain
sufficient food or avoid predators; the loss of parenting
instinct because of neurotoxicological effects; or the result of
abnormal sexual development of anatomy or behavior because of
endocrine disruption….
“We estimate with confidence that:
“In many cases wildlife and humans have exceeded their capacity
to compensate for exposure to chemicals….
“When an animal is exposed at the same time to many chemicals
that individually are at non-toxic levels, additivity,
antagonism, potentiation, and synergy [multiplier effects] can
result in unpredictable consequences. Concomitant [simultaneous]
exposure to multiple chemicals can cause massive or subtle, but
potentially tragic, effects….
“Wildlife are reliable sentinels of effects of chemicals on human
populations….
“We believe that:
“Traditional assessments of risks posed by single chemicals are
not adequate for assessing the risks for embryos exposed to
multiple chemicals….
“Until more people understand the insidious nature of
developmental toxicants, little will change. More popular press
articles and other media should broadcast the message about the
effects of developmental toxicants using the wildlife/human
connection….”
Coal miners used to keep canaries in cages in the mines, to warn
of a buildup of toxic gases. When the canaries died, it served
as a stark warning that conditions were deteriorating dangerously.
Today our canaries are in the ocean. Only fools will ignore them.
–Peter Montague
                
                
                
                
    
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[1] Timothy Egan, “U.S. Fishing Fleet Trawling Coastal Water
Without Fish,” NEW YORK TIMES March 7, 1994, pgs. A1, B7.
[3] Janet Raloff, “Something’s Fishy,” SCIENCE NEWS Vol. 146
(July 2, 1994), pgs. 8-9.
Descriptor terms: oceans; fish; wildlife; seals; harbor seals;
salmon; puget sound; steelhead trout; ma; gloucester; new
bedford; atlantic; baltic; chesapeake bay oysters; immune system;
immunotoxins; grouper; red snapper; cod; haddock; flounder; green
sea turtles; fibropapillomas; viruses; herpes; lake baikal;
canine distemper; lubec; me; north sea; bottlenosed dolphins;
gulf of mexico; mediterranean; pcbs; organochlorine compounds;
albert osterhaus; harbor seals; studies; wingspread; theo
colborn; species loss; endocrine system; nervous system;
reproductive system; developmental disorders;