Swimming in a River of Pollutants: Belugas Believed to be Four Times More Contaminated Than Minke Whales

In his project, Antoine Simond was interested in a particularly toxic category of contaminants: persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The latter comprise a set of substances that are mainly found in discharges from human activities. POPs pose a major threat to the health of St. Lawrence whales, since they have the ability to accumulate in the animals’ tissues and remain trapped there. In belugas and many other animals, these pollutants cause a multitude of health problems and potentially mortality in some individuals. Additionally, POPs are omnipresent: not only can they travel long distances in the environment, but they also take considerably long to break down. Thus, despite some of these substances being banned in recent decades, they are still found in significant quantities in the waters of the St. Lawrence. The products that replaced them, known as “emerging”, are still poorly understood by researchers and their degree of toxicity is unclear.

A few examples:

• PBDEs: Flame retardants widely used in recent decades to mitigate the risk of fire on various objects such as furniture, electrical appliances and vehicles. Their use is now regulated.
• Halogenated flame retardants (HFR): These new substances have replaced PBDEs.
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): Electrical insulators widely used between 1930-1970.

The study also showed that several of the pollutants that accumulate in the tissues of male belugas and female minke whales disrupt the functioning of thyroid and steroid hormones. The latter help maintain balance in the body and are essential for growth and survival. However, due to the small number of individuals sampled, no direct link could be established between pollutant exposure and hormone release.

Why are they so bad for marine fauna? To answer this question, one must first understand how hormones work. Produced by different glands, they act as messengers in the body and regulate many vital bodily functions such as growth, hunger and reproduction. To deliver their message to a particular cell – called a target cell – hormones must bind to a receptor that only they can activate. Thus, they act a bit like a key that opens a lock, the two elements being specific to one another. Once bound to its receptor, the hormone acts on the target cell: it can trigger growth, reproduction and protein synthesis, among other things.

A contaminant will take the place of the hormone on the receptor. This trickery can generate a different response from the cell, which then causes a disruption of the animal’s vital functions. For example, the hormones that allow a young beluga to grow normally could be blocked by contaminants.