Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Agadir, Morocco, June 25, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Researchers have found an alarming rate of toxic and heavy metals in the samples taken from an estimated 1,000 sperm whales. The research was conducted over 5 years on the large number of whales and the results indicate that the ingested pollutants are a result of human activities. The pollution of the sperm whales’ food chain with metals such as cadmium, mercury, aluminium, lead, silver and chromium may also lead to higher concentration of the metals in the other marine animals on which the human race is dependent for sea food.

According to Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the threat to the whales is a threat to all the animals in the ocean. The research was conducted by Ocean Alliance on the tissue samples of the whales was collected by a dart gun. The group went out on an expedition that started from San Diego to monitor the ocean’s health and collected samples from 955 whales over the years. Roger Payne called his group’s finding the most comprehensive study of ocean pollutants ever done. The $5 million project, according to Roger Payne, has revealed the greatest threat to human lives as this will eventually shorten lives and also lead to the extinction of the sperm whales.

In some of the samples, mercury concentration as high as 16 ppm were found. The number is shocking considering that the doctors warn about high mercury levels for children and pregnant women in seafoods like sharks and starfish that have mercury levels of 1ppm. The whales’ samples revealed an average of 2.4 ppm of mercury but the scientists said that the concentration should be much higher in the internal organs of the marine mammal.