Marine mammals

Fats and oils may be synthesized in enantiomerically pure forms in the laboratory (30) or derived from vegetable sources (mainly from nuts, beans, and seeds), animal depot fats, fish, or marine mammals. Oils obtained from other sources differ markedly in their fatty acid distribution. Table 2 shows compositions for a wide variety of oils. One variation in composition is the chain length of the fatty acid. Butterfat, for example, has a fairly high concentration of short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids. Oils derived from cuphea are also a rich source of capric acid which is considered to be medium in chain length (32). Palm kernel and coconut oils are known as lauric oils because of their high content of C-12 saturated fatty acid (lauric acid). Rapeseed oil, on the other hand, has a fairly high concentration of long-chain (C-20 and C-22) fatty acids. 

A number of other chemicals suspected of having endocrine disrupting potential also occur at high levels in the tissues of marine mammals. For example, tribiityltin compounds are present in the tissues of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias juhatus) from Hokaido, Japan, and in stranded bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) found along the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts.Additional chemicals detected include PAHs, toxaphene and chlordane. ... 

M. Mattson and E. Elelle, Eleventh Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, The Soeiety for Marine Mammalogy, Lawrenee, Kansas, USA, Abstraet p7A. 

Ortiz, R.M. (2001). Osmoregulation in marine mammals. The Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol. 204,1831-1844. 

Boon, J.P., Van Arnhem, E., and Jansen, S. et al. (1992). The toxicokinetics of PCBs in marine mammals with special reference to possible interactions of individual congeners with cytochrome P450 dependent monooxygenase systems an overview. In C.H Walker and D. Livingstone (1992). Persistent Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems 119-160. 

Varanasi, U., Stein, J.E., and Reichert, W.L. et al. (1992). Chlorinated and aromatic hydrocarbons in bottom sediments, fish and marine mammals in US coastal waters laboratory and field studies of metabolism and accumulation. In C.H. Walker and D.R. Livingstone (Eds.) Persistent Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems, Oxford, U.K. Pergamon Press, 83-118. 

Marine mammals ringed seal, harbor seal, harbor porpoise, beluga whale, narwhal, polar bear. 

Becker PR, Wise SA, Koster BJ, Zeisler R. 1991. Alaska Marine Mammal Tissue Archival Project Revised Collection Protocol. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NISTTR 4529, 33 pp. 

Becker PR. 2000. Concentration of chlorinated hydrocarbons and heavy metals in Alaska arctic marine mammals. Mar PoUut Bull 40 819-829. 

Bjorge A. 2001. How persistent are marine mammal habitats in an ocean of variability In Evans PGH, Raga JA, editors. Marine mammals biology and conservation. New York (NY) Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. 

Das K, Debacker V, PiUet S, Bouquegneau JM. 2003. Heavy metals in marine mammals. In Vos JG, Bossart GD, Fournier M, O Shea TJ, editors. Toxicology of marine mammals. London Taylor Francis. 

Law RJ. 1996. Metals in marine mammals. In Beyer WN, Heinz GH, Redmon-Norwood AW, editors. Environmental contaminants in wildlife interpreting tissue concentrations. Boca Raton (FL) CRC Press, p. 357-376. 

Martin AR, Reeves RR. 2002. Diversity and zoogeography. In Hoelzel, AR, editor. Marine mammal biology an evolutionary approach. Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd. 

O Shea TJ. 1999. Environmental contaminants and marine mammals. In Reynolds JEI, SA Rommel, editors. Biology of marine mammals, Washington, DC Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 485-563. 

Wagemarm R, Trebacz E, Boila G, Lockhart WL. 1998. Methylmercury and total mercnry in tissues of arctic marine mammals. Sci Total Environ 218 19-31. 

The negative role of pesticides in mammal life became clear several decades ago. OCP concentrations in the subcutaneous fat of seals (Pusa balded) from the Baltic Sea reached 300 mg/kg. Marine mammals living in the median latitudes of the northern hemisphere are more contaminated by DDT than animals of the southern hemisphere because of industrial development [6]. 

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