Oceans in Crisis Part II

Healing Our Toxic Seas

Remember DDT? | MERI's Latest Research | Climate Change = Ocean Pollution | What Can We Do?

Centuries of using the sea as both food factory and dumping ground is catching up with us. Signs are increasing that entire marine ecosystems may be at risk from the enormous volumes of industrial pollutants, pesticide runoff, flame-retardants, e waste, metals, plastic debris, untreated sewage, and crude oil flowing into our oceans. Once they reach the sea --the sink and final reservoir -- many of these harmful compounds can lodge in sediments and recycle through marine food webs for geologic time. As never before, ocean inhabitants are sending loud warning signals that something is terribly wrong. Link to Op-Ed Marine Life Under Siege 1991

Just as Rachel Carson identified the role of DDT spraying in the mass extirpation of bird populations in the 1960s, MERI’s scientists were among the first to recognize and document the crisis caused by chemical pollution of the oceans in the late 1980s. Science News 1994: Is Pollution Sealing Their Fate. At that time, large-scale mass mortalities involving tens of thousands of marine mammals (seals, dolphins, whales) were occurring in polluted waters of the North Sea, the Baltic, and the US Atlantic coast.

Studies conducted by MERI and others revealed that marine mammals, as top predators, carry a staggering load of industrial pollutants such as PCBs, DDT, and other synthetic chemicals in their tissues. In many cases, by US EPA standards, their PCB levels alone are high enough for their bodies to be considered “hazardous waste”. No wonder they die on our beaches.

Remember DDT?

After DDT was banned in the 1970s, eagle and osprey populations slowly rebounded.  But continued cycling and slow breakdown rates of legacy chemicals such as PCBs and DDT are still a major concern for wildlife and people some 40 years after they were banned. And new anxieties have emerged recently over a wide range of novel chemicals that are increasing in in marine food webs – known endocrine disruptors, reproductive toxins, immune toxins, and developmental neurotoxins in animals and people. Prominent examples include brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds, pharmaceuticals and plastic components (such as bisphenol-A, BPA) commonly used in everyday household products.

In the past two decades, MERI has detected literally hundreds of these chemicals in the tissues of harbor seals along the northwest Atlantic coast (from eastern Canada to New York). Levels of flame retardants in the bodies of seal pups are distressingly high and may be contributing to their elevated mortality rates, by compromising their immune systems.  We also found these toxic chemicals in commercially important marine fish that are harbor seal prey – hake, flounder, mackerel, plaice, herring – showing that the chemicals are permeating the entire ocean ecosystem and the food web that we depend on.


MERI's Latest Research
Our current research measures “novel” chemicals in seals – these are the chemical replacements for banned flame retardants. Just because these chemicals are marketed without health and safety data does not mean that they are benign. In fact, most of the “new” flame retardants are chemical cousins of the persistent, toxic compounds they replaced and are likely just as hazardous to health and the environment. New evidence suggests that these chemicals are not only hazardous, but their ability to save lives during fires is unproven. (Review Article) The bottom line is, when persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (PBT) chemicals start building up in the ocean environment, it is a red flag for long-term toxicity (decades) in the food web.


Climate Change = Ocean Pollution

Many people, including scientists, do not regard climate change propelled by excess atmospheric CO2 as an ocean pollution issue. They are wrong.  We are steadily polluting our oceans as we continue using fossil fuels at a rate higher than any country in the world. What is less known is that climate change is not only causing ocean warming and acidity – it is increasing chemical toxicity in the oceans.  Public understanding of the complex, synergistic impacts of our use of earth’s resources and how we can reverse the trends is critical to the health and the very survival of our oceans in the next few years.

MERI’s research provides critical, cutting-edge information to address key questions: Which contaminants are of most concern for wildlife and humans? Are levels high/low compared with other regions? Which target compounds are increasing, decreasing in the food web? Bioaccumulating/ biomagnifying? In which tissues? Are the chemical replacements for banned flame retardants and other novel compounds (personal care products, pharmaceuticals) contaminating fish and marine animal?   Are levels sufficient to cause endocrine disruption, reproductive or neurotoxic effects in animals and people? Do contaminant levels in market fish or shellfish exceed action levels for human consumption? Can we identify point or non-point sources that can be eliminated or addressed? Are there safe alternatives for toxic chemicals in consumer and commercial products?

Saving Our Oceans:  What Can We Do

Human interactions with the ocean must change… And this has to be part of a wider re-evaluation of the core values of human society and its relationship to the natural world and the resources on which we all rely. “ – International Programme on State of the Ocean, June 2011

 

How do we influence societal change in time to save the oceans? We need research to identify and understand the problems, but research alone, piling on evidence, is not enough. We’re coming to the end of the oceans, mired in unsustainable patterns and policies --- and collectively, we must expeditiously embrace solutions. The oceans are at a tipping point.  More than ever, scientists need to communicate – to make their deeper, broader knowledge understandable to the public and to policy makers.

To this end, our findings are not just sitting on an academic shelf – by effectively translating the findings for policymakers, MERI brings peer-reviewed science-based information to public policy on the management of toxic chemicals in Maine and nationally/globally. Working with coalition partners, we helped enact the 2007 ban of the neurotoxic flame retardant Deca in Maine and the US phase-out in 2009. We provided testimony in 2011 to defeat the roll-back of the Kids Safe Product Act of 2008 and enact the BPA ban. In the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Maine, we are promoting sound environmental policy and supporting clean energy to reduce CO2 release to the atmosphere and the ocean.

Solutions to the ocean crisis will require unprecedented cooperation between nations and international government bodies—but we cannot succeed without political will and pressure from informed citizens. We are intensifying our educational efforts to present critical information strategically across multiple sectors to empower people and inspire change.  One of our most successful programs -- MERI’s acclaimed Ocean Environment Lecture Series featuring international experts - will be made widely available on video (live stream and podcasts). Through the MERI website we will be disseminating information that consumers, homeowners, families and children need to know about toxics and everyday choices that make a difference. See 10 Things You Can Do to Protect the Oceans and Your Own Health.

MERI is addressing the crisis in the sea on all fronts – will you join us?

MERI’s Mission and Beliefs The mission of MERI is to protect ocean life and human health by advancing understanding of ocean pollution, educating the public, and advocating for protective policies to protect and preserve the ocean/human environment for this and future generations.   Our approach is three-fold: RESEARCH: Advancing science that matters EDUCATION: Empowering individuals, inspiring change ADVOCACY: Fostering protective policies

Our work is grounded in our fundamental beliefs. We believe that healthy people need healthy oceans, and the ocean and human environment are inextricably linked. We hold that marine wildlife deserve to inhabit healthy waters free from man-made pollutants --- and people have the right to be free from toxic exposure in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and in our oceans that sustain life on the planet. We are committed to peer-reviewed science and effective translation to provide science-based advocacy for oceans and human health. Finally, we believe in the power of education to inspire solutions and drive societal change. People created the problem and people can and will solve it.

 

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