PMID- 33254700
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20201204
LR  - 20201214
IS  - 1873-6424 (Electronic)
IS  - 0269-7491 (Linking)
VI  - 267
DP  - 2020 Dec
TI  - Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) breeding off Mozambique and Ecuador show 
      geographic variation of persistent organic pollutants and isotopic niches.
PG  - 115575
LID - S0269-7491(20)36263-1 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115575 [doi]
AB  - Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from the Southern Hemisphere carry 
      information on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from their feeding zones in 
      Antarctica to their breeding grounds, making this species a sentinel of 
      contaminants accumulation in the Southern Ocean. This study aimed to evaluate 
      driving factors, namely feeding areas, trophic level, and sex, affecting POP 
      concentrations in the blubber of humpback whales breeding off Mozambique and off 
      Ecuador. Biopsies of free-ranging humpback whales including blubber and skin were 
      collected in 2014 and 2015 from Ecuador (n = 59) and in 2017 from Mozambique 
      (n = 89). In both populations, HCB was the major contaminant followed by 
      DDTs > CHLs > PCBs > HCHs > PBDEs. POP concentrations were significantly higher 
      in males compared to females. HCB, DDTs, HCHs and PBDEs were significantly 
      different between whales from the Mozambique population and the Ecuador 
      population. Sex and feeding habits were important driving factors accounting for 
      POP concentrations in Ecuador whales. The whales from our study had some of the 
      lowest POP concentrations measured for humpback whales in the world. These whales 
      fed predominantly on krill as reflected from the low delta(13)C and delta(15)N values 
      measured in the skin. However, the isotopic niches of whales from Mozambique and 
      Ecuador did not overlap indicating that the two populations are feeding in 
      different areas of the Southern Ocean.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
FAU - Remili, Anais
AU  - Remili A
AD  - Freshwater and Oceanic Sciences Unit of ReSearch (FOCUS - Oceanology), University 
      of Liege, 4000, Liege, Belgium; Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill 
      University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada.
FAU - Gallego, Pierre
AU  - Gallego P
AD  - Freshwater and Oceanic Sciences Unit of ReSearch (FOCUS - Oceanology), University 
      of Liege, 4000, Liege, Belgium; Odyssea asbl., 37 rue du Nord, L-4260, 
      Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
FAU - Pinzone, Marianna
AU  - Pinzone M
AD  - Freshwater and Oceanic Sciences Unit of ReSearch (FOCUS - Oceanology), University 
      of Liege, 4000, Liege, Belgium.
FAU - Castro, Cristina
AU  - Castro C
AD  - Pacific Whale Foundation Ecuador, Malecon Julio Izurieta y Abdon Calderon. Palo 
      Santo Travel, Puerto Lopez - Manabi - Ecuador.
FAU - Jauniaux, Thierry
AU  - Jauniaux T
AD  - Department of Pathology, Veterinary College, University of Liege, Sart Tilman 
      B43, 4000, Liege, Belgium.
FAU - Garigliany, Mutien-Marie
AU  - Garigliany MM
AD  - Department of Pathology, Veterinary College, University of Liege, Sart Tilman 
      B43, 4000, Liege, Belgium.
FAU - Malarvannan, Govindan
AU  - Malarvannan G
AD  - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, 
      Belgium.
FAU - Covaci, Adrian
AU  - Covaci A
AD  - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, 
      Belgium.
FAU - Das, Krishna
AU  - Das K
AD  - Freshwater and Oceanic Sciences Unit of ReSearch (FOCUS - Oceanology), University 
      of Liege, 4000, Liege, Belgium. Electronic address: Krishna.das@uliege.be.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20200903
PL  - England
TA  - Environ Pollut
JT  - Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)
JID - 8804476
RN  - 0 (Environmental Pollutants)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Antarctic Regions
MH  - Breeding
MH  - Ecuador
MH  - *Environmental Pollutants
MH  - Female
MH  - *Humpback Whale
MH  - Male
MH  - Mozambique
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Humpback whales
OT  - Persistent organic pollutants
OT  - Stable isotopes
COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known 
      competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
      to influence the work reported in this paper.
EDAT- 2020/12/02 06:00
MHDA- 2020/12/15 06:00
CRDT- 2020/12/01 01:02
PHST- 2020/05/27 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2020/08/27 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2020/08/28 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2020/12/01 01:02 [entrez]
PHST- 2020/12/02 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/12/15 06:00 [medline]
AID - S0269-7491(20)36263-1 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115575 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Environ Pollut. 2020 Dec;267:115575. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115575. Epub 2020 
      Sep 3.