Bottlenose Dolphins as Indicators of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Waters Along the US East and Gulf of Mexico Coasts

Published

May 15, 2011

Author(s)

John R. Kucklick, Lori Schwacke, Randall S. Wells, Aleta Hohn, Aurore Guichard, Jennifer Yordy, Larry Hansen, Eric Zolman, Rachel Wilson, J. L. Litz, Doug Nowacek, Teresa Rowles, Rebecca S. Pugh, Brian C. Balmer, Carrie Sinclair, Patricia Rosel

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including legacy POPs (PCBs, chlordanes, mirex, DDTs, HCB, and dieldrin) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants were determined in 300 blubber biopsy samples from coastal and near shore/estuarine male bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) sampled along the US East and Gulf of Mexico coasts. Dolphins were sampled from 14 locations including urban and rural estuaries, a location near a Superfund site contaminated with Aroclor 1268. The dolphins sampled included those that reside permanently in a given estuary, two coastal migratory stocks living along the U.S. East Coast, and animals from near Bermuda presumably from an offshore bottlenose dolphin stock. All classes of legacy POPs in estuarine/coastal shore dolphins varied significantly (p

Citation

Environmental Science & Technology

Volume

45

Issue

10

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Bottlenose dolphin, persistent organic pollutant, urbanization, profile, exposure, bioindictor

Citation

Kucklick, J. , Schwacke, L. , , R. , Hohn, A. , Guichard, A. , Yordy, J. , Hansen, L. , Zolman, E. , Wilson, R. , Litz, J. , Nowacek, D. , Rowles, T. , Pugh, R. , Balmer, B. , Sinclair, C. and Rosel, P. (2011), Bottlenose Dolphins as Indicators of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Waters Along the US East and Gulf of Mexico Coasts, Environmental Science & Technology (Accessed March 14, 2025)