PMID- 29179068 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20180823 LR - 20180823 IS - 1879-1026 (Electronic) IS - 0048-9697 (Linking) VI - 621 DP - 2018 Apr 15 TI - Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in blood and blubber of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) at three northern Gulf of Mexico sites following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. PG - 130-137 LID - S0048-9697(17)33267-9 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.209 [doi] AB - Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), including those impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, inhabit the coastal and estuarine waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). In response to the spill, dolphin health assessments conducted in Barataria Bay, Louisiana - a site that experienced heavy and prolonged oiling - uncovered a high prevalence of health abnormalities and individuals in poor body condition. Although the health effects observed were suggestive of petroleum toxicity, a lack of pre-spill information regarding dolphin health raises the possibility that other environmental factors may have contributed to the adverse health of dolphins in this oil-impacted area. To assess how exposure to other environmental pollutants may affect the health of northern GoM dolphin populations impacted by the DWH oil spill, a suite of 69 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including PCBs, PBDEs and organochlorine pesticides, was determined in blood and a subset of blubber samples collected during health assessments of 145 bottlenose dolphins at three GoM sites: two oil impacted sites - Barataria Bay, LA (BB), and Mississippi Sound, MS (MS) and an unimpacted reference site - Sarasota Bay, FL (SB). Overall, levels of POPs at all three sites appeared comparable or lower than concentrations previously reported for coastal bottlenose dolphin populations outside of the northern GoM. POP levels measured in BB dolphins were also comparable or lower than those measured at the unimpacted reference site (SB) within the northern GoM. Additionally, the relationship between blubber and blood contaminant levels in a smaller subset of BB and SB suggests that BB animals were not experiencing elevated blood-contaminant concentrations as a result of their poor body condition. Cumulatively, these results suggest that background levels of POPs measured are unlikely to produce the health abnormalities previously reported for BB dolphins. CI - Copyright (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. FAU - Balmer, Jennifer E AU - Balmer JE AD - Industrial Economics, Incorporated, 2067 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA; National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA. Electronic address: jbalmer@citadel.edu. FAU - Ylitalo, Gina M AU - Ylitalo GM AD - Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, WA 98112, USA. FAU - Rowles, Teresa K AU - Rowles TK AD - Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA. FAU - Mullin, Keith D AU - Mullin KD AD - Southeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, 3209 Frederic Street, Pascagoula, MS 39567, USA. FAU - Wells, Randall S AU - Wells RS AD - Chicago Zoological Society's Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, c/o Mote Marine Laboratory, 1600 Ken Thompson Parkway, Sarasota, FL 34236, USA. FAU - Townsend, Forrest I AU - Townsend FI AD - Bayside Hospital for Animals, 251 Racetrack Road NE, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547, USA. FAU - Pearce, Ronald W AU - Pearce RW AD - Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, WA 98112, USA. FAU - Bolton, Jennie L AU - Bolton JL AD - Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, WA 98112, USA. FAU - Zolman, Eric S AU - Zolman ES AD - National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA. FAU - Balmer, Brian C AU - Balmer BC AD - National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA. FAU - Schwacke, Lori H AU - Schwacke LH AD - National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20171123 PL - Netherlands TA - Sci Total Environ JT - The Science of the total environment JID - 0330500 RN - 0 (Water Pollutants, Chemical) SB - IM MH - Adipose Tissue/*chemistry MH - Animals MH - *Bottle-Nosed Dolphin MH - Disasters MH - Environmental Monitoring MH - Gulf of Mexico MH - Louisiana MH - Mississippi MH - *Petroleum Pollution MH - Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis/*blood OTO - NOTNLM OT - Contaminants OT - Deepwater Horizon OT - Dolphins OT - Gulf of Mexico OT - Marine mammals OT - Persistent organic pollutants EDAT- 2017/11/28 06:00 MHDA- 2018/08/24 06:00 CRDT- 2017/11/28 06:00 PHST- 2017/08/31 00:00 [received] PHST- 2017/10/27 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2017/11/18 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2017/11/28 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2018/08/24 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2017/11/28 06:00 [entrez] AID - S0048-9697(17)33267-9 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.209 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Sci Total Environ. 2018 Apr 15;621:130-137. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.209. Epub 2017 Nov 23.