Dear MARMAM colleagues We are pleased to announce the recent publication of our paper “PCB pollution continues to impact populations of orcas and other dolphins in European waters”. Jepson, P. D., Deaville, R., Barber, J. L., Aguilar, À., Borrell, A., Murphy, S., Barry, J., Brownlow, A., Barnett, J., Berrow, S., Cunningham, A. A., Davison, N., ten Doeschate, M., Esteban, R., Ferreira, M., Foote, A. D., Genov, T., Giménez, J., Loveridge, J., Llavona, Á., Martin, V., Maxwell, D. L., Papachlimitzou, A., Penrose, R., Perkins, M. W., Smith, B., de Stephanis, R., Tregenza, N., Verborgh, P., Fernandez, A. & Law, R. J. (2016) PCB pollution continues to impact populations of orcas and other dolphins in European waters. Sci. Rep. 6, 18573; doi: 10.1038/srep18573. Abstract: Organochlorine (OC) pesticides and the more persistent polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have well established dose-dependent toxicities to birds, fish and mammals in experimental studies, but the actual impact of OC pollutants on European marine top predators remains unknown. Here we show that several cetacean species have very high mean blubber PCB concentrations likely to cause population declines and suppress population recovery. In a large pan-European meta-analysis of stranded (n=929) or biopsied (n=152) cetaceans, three out of four species:- striped dolphins (SDs), bottlenose dolphins (BNDs) and killer whales (KWs) had mean PCB levels that markedly exceeded all known marine mammal PCB toxicity thresholds. Some locations (e.g. western Mediterranean Sea, south-west Iberian Peninsula) are global PCB “hotspots” for marine mammals. Blubber PCB concentrations initially declined following a mid-1980s EU ban, but have since stabilised in UK harbour porpoises and SDs in the western Mediterranean Sea. Some small or declining populations of BNDs and KWs in the NE Atlantic were associated with low recruitment, consistent with PCB-induced reproductive toxicity. Despite regulations and mitigation measures to reduce PCB pollution, their biomagnification in marine food webs continues to cause severe impacts among cetacean top predators in European seas. The paper can be downloaded directly from the journal Scientific Reports; http://www.nature.com/articles/srep18573 Best wishes Rob Rob Deaville Project Manager UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme The Wellcome Building Institute of Zoology Zoological Society of London Regent's Park London NW1 4RY tel: +44 (0)20 7449 6672 fax: +44 (0)20 7483 2237 Web: www.ukstrandings.org<http://www.ukstrandings.org/> Email: rob.deaville@ioz.ac.uk<mailto:rob.deaville@ioz.ac.uk> Facebook: Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cetacean-Strandings-Investigation-Programme-UK-strandings/142706582438320> ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON LIVING CONSERVATION Registered Charity no. 208728 The Zoological Society of London is incorporated by Royal Charter Principal Office England. Company Number RC000749 Registered address: Regent's Park, London, England NW1 4RY Registered Charity in England and Wales no. 208728 _________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been sent in confidence to the named addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you must not disclose or distribute it in any form, and you are asked to contact the sender immediately. Views or opinions expressed in this communication may not be those of The Zoological Society of London and, therefore, The Zoological Society of London does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message. The recipient(s) must be aware that e-mail is not a secure communication medium and that the contents of this mail may have been altered by a third party in transit. If you have any issues regarding this mail please contact: administrator@zsl.org. ___________________________________________________________________________ This message has been scanned for viruses by MailControl, a service from BlackSpider Technologies.