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Toxics building up in Puget Sound auklets

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A study this month by NOAA shows a disturbing trend among Puget Sound seabirds. Persistent organic pollutants like flame retardants and PCBs continue to find their way into the marine food chain and are showing up in high concentrations in rhinoceros auklets and other birds in Washington, especially those birds that feed near the waters of Puget Sound.

Rhinoceros Auklet carrying sandlances. Photo by Peter Hodum.
Rhinoceros Auklet carrying sandlances. Photo by Peter Hodum.

A study this month by NOAA shows a disturbing trend among Puget Sound seabirds. Persistent organic pollutants like flame retardants and PCBs continue to find their way into the marine food chain and are showing up in high concentrations in rhinoceros auklets and other birds in Washington, especially those birds that feed near the waters of Puget Sound. The story resonates with our recent article in Salish Sea Currents, "Citizens now the leading cause of toxics in Puget Sound" by Sarah DeWeerdt.

DeWeerdt's story looks at many of the new sources of toxics that flow by the ton into Puget Sound every day, but even pollutants like PCBs that are no longer produced remain in the mud at the bottom of the Sound and continue to pose problems. Seabirds like rhinoceros auklets are good indicators of this trend as they consume contaminated fish. 

"The diets of rhinoceros auklets in Puget Sound include roughly two to four times more [persistent organic pollutants] than diets of auklets on the Pacific Coast outside Puget Sound," NOAA reports.

While NOAA's story focuses on seabirds, other news in Puget Sound this week also highlights the PCB problem. Sadly, scientists reported the likely death of a 7-week old orca calf from the region's endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale population. That population now sits at 78, the lowest it has been since 2001. The calf was thought to be healthy, but its rarity was due in part to the high concentrations of PCBs and other pollutants in Puget Sound waters. The orcas pick up the chemicals through their diet of contaminated Chinook salmon, a fish that humans enjoy as well. High amounts of PCBs are known to cause whales to abort their calves, making healthy newborns exceedingly rare. The recent NOAA study says levels of pollutants may also be high enough to disrupt seabird reproduction, as well as their behavior and immune systems.

The news isn't all bad. Scientists say at least we know what we are fighting. "What we are learning is that the monitoring works,” researcher John Elliott from Environment Canada told Salish Sea Currents. As contaminants like flame retardants and PCBs are identified, they can be discontinued. “We have an incredibly active and engaged population here,” Elliott says. “Changing people’s behavior is the key.”

That can be more difficult with persistent contaminants that may have been discontinued many years ago and remain in the sediment, but the work is ongoing. Superfund sites like the Duwamish and Foss waterways (the Foss is just outside the windows of our offices in Tacoma) where much of the PCB contamination exists stand as symbols of where we have been and, as the seabirds and orcas remind us, where we continue to be.