Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Research Article

A Global Assessment of Gold, Titanium, Strontium and Barium Pollution Using Sperm Whales (Physeter Macrocephalus) As an Indicator Species

John Pierce Wise. Sr.^1,2,3,4*, W. Douglas Thompson^2,3, Sandra S. Wise^1,2,3,4, Carolyne LaCerte^1,2,3,4, James Wise^1,2,4, Christy Gianios Jr.^1,2,3,4, Christopher Perkins⁵, Tongzhang Zheng^2,6, Lucille Benedict^2,7, Michael D. Mason^2,8, Roger Payne^2,4 and Iain Kerr^2,4

¹Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology

²Maine Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health,

³Department of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME. 04104

⁴Ocean Alliance, 191 Weston Rd., Lincoln, MA 01773

⁵Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

⁶Division of Environmental Health Sciences, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

⁷Department of Chemistry, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME. 04104

⁸Institute for Molecular Biophysics, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469

*Corresponding Author:

Dr. John Pierce Wise
Sr. 96 Falmouth St. PO Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Tel: (207) 228-8050
Fax: (207) 228-8518
E-mail: John.Wise@maine.edu

Received March 25, 2011; Accepted April 07, 2011; Published April 11, 2011

Citation:Wise JP, Thompson WD, Wise SS, LaCerte C, Wise J, et al. (2011) A Global Assessment of Gold, Titanium, Strontium and Barium Pollution Using Sperm Whales (Physeter Macrocephalus) As an Indicator Species. J Ecosys Ecograph 1:101. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.1000101

Copyright: © 2011 Wise JP, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This study provides a global baseline for barium, gold, titanium and strontium as marine pollutants using the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) as an indicator species. Barium, gold, titanium and strontium are metals that are little studied in marine environments. However, their recent emergence as nanomaterials will likely increase their presence in the marine environment. Moreover, nanosized particles are likely to exhibit toxic outcomes not seen in macrosized particles. Biopsies from free ranging sperm whales were collected from around the globe. Total barium levels were measured in 275 of 298 sperm whales tested for barium and collected from 16 regions around the globe. The global mean for barium was 0.93 +/- 0.2ug/g with a detectable range from 0.1 to 27.9ug. Total strontium levels were measurable in all 298 sperm whales producing a global mean level of 2.2 +/- 0.1ug/g and a range from 0.2 to 11.5ug/g. Total titanium levels were also measured in all 298 sperm whales producing a global mean level of 4.5 +/- 0.25ug/g with a range from 0.1 to 29.8ug/g. Total gold levels were detected in 50 of the 194 sperm whales collected from 16 regions around the globe. Detectable levels ranged from 0.1 to 2.3ug/g tissue with a global mean level equal to 0.2 +/- 0.02ug/g. Previous reports of these metals were much lower than the mean levels reported here. The likely explanation is location differences and consistent with this explanation, we found statistically significant variation among regions. These data provide an important global baseline for barium, gold, titanium and strontium pollution and will allow for important comparisons to be made over time to assess the impact of nanomaterials on whales and the marine environment.

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