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  • Determination of PAH baseline values in tissues from subsistence-harvested marine mammals on the North Slope

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Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) Environmental and Fisheries Sciences EFS - Environmental Chemistry

Information

Project
PAH tissue baseline concentrations from subsistence-harvested marine mammals
Title
Determination of PAH baseline values in tissues from subsistence-harvested marine mammals on the North Slope
Description
Over the past 15 years, high quality marine mammal tissue and fluid samples collected by subsistence hunters in the North Slope region of Alaska have been archived by the North Slope Borough (NSB). Staff from both the NSB’s Department of Wildlife Management and the NWFSC have selected a subset of the samples for analyses of petroleum-related compounds to establish baseline concentrations in top-level predators in the region. The Environmental Chemistry Program will analyze tissue and stomach content samples of various species of marine mammals harvested in the North Slope region of Alaska for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including alkylated PAH homologs using gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The NWFSC will also analyze bile and urine samples collected from a subset of these animals for PAH metabolites using either high-performance liquid chromatography/fluorescence or liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The findings of this study will be drafted for a peer-reviewed journal publication.

Data Sets

no data found

Research Themes

Habitats to support sustainable fisheries and recovered populations
Healthy oceans, coastal waters, and riverine habitats provide the foundation for aquatic resources used by a diversity of species and society. Protecting marine, estuarine and freshwater ecosystems that support these species relies on science to link habitat condition/processes and the biological effects of restoration actions. The NWFSC provides the habitat science behind many management actions taken by NOAA Fisheries and other natural resource agencies to protect and recover aquatic ecosystems and living marine resources. The NWFSC also maintains a longstanding focus on toxic chemical contaminants, as a foundation for regional and national research on pollution threats to fisheries and protected resources.

Research Foci

Assess the impacts of toxic chemicals and other pollutants across biological scales, and identify pollution reduction strategies that improve habitat quality
The NWFSC has been at the forefront of marine pollution research for more than four decades, providing science support for several major events, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Hurricane Katrina, and the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Land-based sources of pollution are an increasingly important threat to NOAA trust resources, and NWFSC science is evolving to fill priority information gaps at the regional and national scales. This includes targeted research on major classes of contaminants (e.g., crude oil, pesticides, metals, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals of emerging concern); surveillance monitoring to assess the exposure, health and status of species in polluted habitats; exposure; monitoring to assess the success of habitat restoration efforts; and research to evaluate the effectiveness of new green infrastructure technologies. Ongoing efforts span all biological scales, from molecular mechanisms of toxicity to population and community-level responses.

Keywords

None designated

Products

None associated

Taxa

Family Phocidae
true seals
Species Delphinapterus leucas
beluga, buluga, sea canary
Species Odobenus rosmarus
walrus

People

Bernadita Anulacion
Staff
Catherine Sloan
Staff
Denis Da Silva
Staff
Gina Ylitalo
Principal Investigator
Jennie Bolton
Staff
Richard Boyer
Staff
Ronald Pearce
Staff