Hitting the Squids

News & Analysis
In the News Gristmill Blog Muckraker Features

Columns
Ask Umbra Victual Reality Weekly Recipes The Bottom Line From A to Green The Grist List

Support nonprofit, independent environmental journalism.
Donate to Grist.

ADVERTISING POLICY

[Advanced]

Read more about: news | oceans | scientific research | toxics | all of these topics

Tools: print | email | write to the editor | subscribe | RSS

Deep-sea squid and octopi full of human-made chemicals

Posted at 12:10 PM on 13 Jun 2008

Human-made chemicals have snuck on down into the ocean depths, showing up in the tissues of deep-sea cephalopods, says new research. In a study to be published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, researchers found various persistent organic pollutants -- including PCBs and DDT -- in nine species of octopi, squid, cuttlefish, and nautiluses. "The fact that we detected a variety of pollutants in specimens collected from more than 3,000 feet deep is evidence that human-produced chemicals are reaching remote areas of the open ocean, accumulating in prey species, and therefore available to higher levels of marine life," says study coauthor Michael Vecchione. "Contamination of the deep-sea food web is happening, and it is a real concern."

source: SPX

ADVERTISING POLICY

< Previous | Next >

Comments: (2 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

more evidence

that we do not know who is eating what. And being ignorant of that, we must avoid over-estimating the health of marine ecosystems.

The Woods Hole people are most directly interested in whales; and in connexion with this study of cephalopods, the toothed whales (Odontocetes), being famous eaters of cephalopods, are named here as possibly being harmed by the accumulation of POPs in their bodies.

But the right whales and rorquals tend to eat mostly crustaceans, who are just a short distance further down the food chain from the cephalopods. So we have to allow that their health too may be adversely affected by an accumulation of POPs.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 7:57 AM on 14 Jun 2008

hitting the squids

This is information we should all know intuitively already. To even harbor the idea that we have not polluted the whole earth and all of it's inhabitants is to be in complete denial. I suppose the inside of the rock of gibraltor, and the core of the earth MAY be free of man-made pollutants.

soften your expectations and firm your resolve.

by mtnprivy at 10:12 AM on 14 Jun 2008

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?