Butyltin contamination in marine mammals from North Pacific and Asian coastal waters

College

Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education

Department/Unit

Science Education

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Environmental Science & Technology

Volume

32

Issue

2

First Page

193

Last Page

198

Publication Date

1998

Abstract

Hepatic butyltin concentrations were determined in 63 cetaceans belonging to 14 species and four pinnipeds belonging to two species collected from the North Pacific and Asian coastal waters. Butyltin compounds (BTs), including tributyltin(TBT), dibutyltin(DBT), and monobutyltin (MBT), were detected in almost all the liver samples, suggestive of their worldwide distribution. The elevated residues detected in coastal species and low concentrations found in offshore species indicate a high degree of butyltin contamination in coastal waters than in the open sea. Mammals inhabiting the waters of developed nations were found to contain higher BT concentrations compared with those collected from the waters proximal to developing countries. These observations strongly suggest that there is more serious BT contamination in the waters of developed countries than in developing nations at present. Among the samples collected from Japanese coastal waters, lower BT concentrations were found in pinnipeds compared with the cetaceans, suggestive of a possible difference in degradation capacities and excretory molting between these two groups of animals. The estimated concentration ratio of BT in the liver of a killer whale fetus to its pregnant mother was relatively low (0.015), indicative that transplacental transfer ofBTsfromthemothertoherfetusisadeal less. Among the BT breakdown products, DBT was predominant in most of the liver samples analyzed, followed by TBT and MBT.

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Disciplines

Marine Biology

Keywords

Marine pollution; Marine mammals—Effect of chemicals on; Butanol

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