{"id":265483,"date":"2025-11-06T12:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265483\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T12:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:12:11","slug":"forever-chemicals-found-in-b-c-sea-otters-for-1st-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265483\/","title":{"rendered":"Forever chemicals found in B.C. sea otters for 1st time"},"content":{"rendered":"

New research from the University of British Columbia has found that B.C.\u2019s sea otters<\/a> are contaminated.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUnfortunately, every single sea otter that we looked at did have \u2018forever chemicals\u2019 in them, including a very young sea otter that had died just after being born,\u201d Dana Price, a researcher at the university, told Global News.<\/p>\n

For the first time, UBC researchers have identified per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, in B.C. sea otters.<\/p>\n

Of the 11 deceased animals studied, eight of 40 tested PFAS chemicals were present, with seven found only in the liver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are this man-made chemical; they don\u2019t exist on their own in nature,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a lot of them have been found to be quite toxic and can cause things from cancers, organ damage, and they act a lot in suppressing the immune system, which is a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

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PFAS are found in products such as cosmetics, non-stick cookware and firefighting foam.<\/p>\n

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Concentrations of the substances were on average three times higher in otters found near larger cities and shipping routes on B.C.\u2019s coast, such as Victoria and Tofino.<\/p>\n

And while the levels are below what would require an immediate response, the researchers said there is no doubt that the contaminants are contributing to the animal\u2019s overall health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve known for decades that they\u2019re toxic,\u201d Peter Ross with the Rainforest Conservation Foundation said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggle to understand why it takes us so long as a society to get harmful substances off the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t0:28
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSea otters photographed trying to joining B.C. surfers near Sooke\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ross said the federal government has only regulated a fraction of the PFAS \u2014 six of the 15,000.<\/p>\n

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He said regulation of manufacturing is key to preventing further spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have an issue here, we do have a problem,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are chasing the game and we are trying to play catch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the research provides a baseline for PFAS levels in sea otters going forward.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New research from the University of British Columbia has found that B.C.\u2019s sea otters are contaminated. \u201cUnfortunately, every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[122474,49,48,295,66,122473,323],"class_list":["post-265483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bc-sea-otter","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-sea-otter","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}