The case in summary The three-year-old killer whale Elida was found dead in the Sognefjord in 2021, full of 40-year-old environmental toxins. Tests showed that she had the highest level of environmental toxins found since 2015, compared to other killer whales from Norway. Researchers believe that Elida is an indicator of pollution in the Norwegian marine environment. Where Elida bid and what she ate can explain the high values. The environmental toxins can have consequences for orcas, who may lose the ability to have children, but can also affect humans. Killer whales are considered the most polluted animals in the world by scientists, and there is reason to believe that approximately half of the killer whale population in the world will die out due to environmental toxins in the next 50 to 100 years. The three-year-old killer whale Elida was found dead in the Sognefjord in 2021. A new report shows that she was full of 40-year-old environmental toxins. The values were more than ten times what is considered harmful, and is the highest level of environmental toxins found in Norwegian killer whales since 2015. There were particularly very high levels of the environmental toxins PCB and PBDE – which have been banned since 1980 and 2000 – the speech. These substances do not break down in the environment, and we therefore find them many years later. Elida the killer whale while she was still alive. Photo: Vegard B. Aasen One of the researchers behind the report is Eve Jourdain. She has followed Elida’s family since 2016, and is not surprised by the findings. – Elida is an ambassador, not only for Norwegian killer whales, but also for the Norwegian marine environment. It shows how much pollution there is out there. The aim of the report is to map environmental toxins along the Norwegian coast. Fjord more polluted than sea The reason for the high values in Elida is related to where she bid. Elida and her family have been returning to the innermost fjords in Western Norway year after year. The fjords are more exposed to pollution from land than the open sea, as there is a shorter distance between people on land and the maritime environment. Norway’s longest fjord, the Sognefjord, is also home to the orca family of Elida. Photo: Ingeborg Grindheim Slinde / news – Everything that is produced by us humans on land eventually ends up in the sea, says Jourdain. The report briefly explained The findings appear in the report Screening of new environmental toxins. The research is part of the Norwegian Environment Agency’s screening program where they look for new environmental toxins. The report was published on 30 October 2024. The Norwegian Environment Agency, the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and the Climate and Environment Institute NILU have collaborated to analyze the samples taken by the killer whale Elida. The killer whale Elida had very high levels of the environmental toxins PCB and PBDE in her body. She had 120 milligrams/kg of PCB in her body. It is ten times what is considered harmful. Negative effects from PCBs occur at approximately 9 milligrams/kg. PCBs have been banned since the 1980s. It is a substance that was used in, for example, transformers and measurement. It also makes the plastic softer. PBDEs became illegal in the 2000s. Among other things, it was used in electrical appliances to reduce the risk of fire. The environmental toxins in Elida may have contributed to her poor health and death. Elida probably ate a lot of marine marine mammals, such as porpoises and seals, which are also high in the food chain. The environmental toxins accumulate upwards in the food chain and affect animals high up, such as killer whales. Source: Norwegian Environment Agency In addition, the killer whale has been more exposed to environmental toxins since it has eaten a lot of marine mammals, such as porpoises. They also have high concentrations of environmental toxins in them. The cause of Elida’s death is unknown, but environmental toxins probably played a role. – We know that some of the chemicals were released into the killer whale’s blood, but we do not know if it is lethal enough for an animal. Compares Elida with the “plastic scourge” Do you think a scourge full of plastic is to blame for land outside Bergen in 2017? It created headlines in the national and international press, and accelerated the debate about microplastic pollution. The plastic snake that was found in Bergen in 2017 had 30 plastic bags in its stomach. Photo: CHRISTOPH NOEVER Professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Bergen, Anders Goksøyr, draws parallels between the killer whale Elida and the plastic scourge. – But in contrast to the very visible plastic pollution that was in the plastic crisis, this is an invisible substance. They will continue to circulate in the value chain as long as we do nothing active to remove them. Environmental toxins not only have consequences for the orcas, who may lose the ability to have children, but can also affect us. – They are not acutely dangerous or deadly, but can affect our immune system, our ability to reproduce and can be cancer-causing and hormone-disrupting, says Goksøyr. – An indicator of how we treat nature Killer whales are considered the world’s most polluted animal. That is because they are at the top of the food chain in the sea. The concentration of environmental toxins accumulates the higher the animal is in the food chain. According to Professor Audun Rikardsen at Norway’s Arctic University – UiT, many environmental toxins can cause killer whales to be unable to reproduce and that the substance can settle in the brain. – Within 50 to 100 years, we expect that approximately half of the world’s orca population will have died out due to environmental toxins, he explains. A killer whale in Tysfjord. Photo: Frode Fimland / news Rikardsen has worked closely with killer whales for over ten years. – This is an indicator that we treat nature and the animals around us badly, and that we spread a lot of environmental toxins into nature without knowing the consequences. Published 30.10.2024, at 13.43
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Killer whales died with record high levels of environmental toxins in the Sognefjord – news Vestland
