{"id":483830,"date":"2026-02-18T21:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483830\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T21:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:28:10","slug":"climate-change-and-persistent-contaminants-deliver-one-two-punch-to-arctic-seals-sfu-study-finds-sfu-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483830\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change and persistent contaminants deliver one\u2011two punch to Arctic seals, SFU study finds &#8211; SFU News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0013935125022595?via%3Dihub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">study, published in\u00a0Environmental Research<\/a>,\u00a0analyzed blood, blubber and liver samples from 38\u00a0Arctic ringed\u00a0seals in Labrador\u2019s\u00a0Saglek\u00a0Bay\u00a0and\u00a0adjacent fjords\u00a0from 2009 to 2011.\u00a0Saglek\u00a0Bay is\u00a0a known hotspot for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),\u00a0contamination\u00a0left over from a Cold War-era military radar station.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also measured mercury,\u00a0DDTs\u00a0(synthetic insecticides),\u00a0and chlordane,\u00a0used in\u00a0an old termite pesticide.<\/p>\n<p>Liver samples showed\u00a0consistently\u00a0high levels\u00a0of PCBs, mercury,\u00a0DDTs\u00a0and chlordane across all three years. These long\u2011lasting contaminants, several of which are\u00a0banned\u00a0internationally, are known to cause oxidative stress,\u00a0a form of\u00a0cellular damage linked to inflammation, chronic disease, tissue injury and reduced reproductive health.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also found that blood and blubber samples taken in 2010, an abnormally warm year with low Arctic sea ice, showed signs of malnutrition including a thinner blubber layer\u00a0and depleted fatty acids.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe saw that\u00a0just one year of unusually warm temperatures and reduced ice is enough to change what these seals are eating and how their bodies process nutrients,\u201d says Ana\u00efs Remili, postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0study, published in\u00a0Environmental Research,\u00a0analyzed blood, blubber and liver samples from 38\u00a0Arctic ringed\u00a0seals in Labrador\u2019s\u00a0Saglek\u00a0Bay\u00a0and\u00a0adjacent fjords\u00a0from 2009 to 2011.\u00a0Saglek\u00a0Bay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-483830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483830","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=483830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}