{"id":484423,"date":"2026-02-19T03:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484423\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:35:12","slug":"climate-change-and-persistent-contaminants-deliver-one-two-punch-to-arctic-seals-sfu-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484423\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change and persistent contaminants deliver one\u2011two punch to Arctic seals, SFU study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Arctic<\/p>\n

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image:\u00a0<\/p>\n

SFU researchers take a blood sample from an Arctic ringed seal in Northern Labrador. Photo: Samuel Bentley<\/p>\n

view more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit: Samuel Bentley<\/p>\n

The SFU\u00a0study\u00a0found\u00a0Arctic ringed seals are struggling to clear persistent\u00a0contaminants and banned pesticides from their bodies \u2014 a long\u2011term health risk made worse when climate\u2011driven changes to sea ice and temperatures limit their access to nutrient-rich food.<\/p>\n

\u201cRinged seals are a crucial link between invertebrates, fish and apex predators, and they are a cornerstone of northern food systems,\u201d\u00a0says Tanya Brown, marine\u00a0mammal\u00a0ecotoxicologist\u00a0and senior study author. \u201cWe\u2019ve found that warmer conditions can change what they feed on, which changes their contaminant exposure, and that can affect their overall health and survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key findings\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tBlood,\u00a0blubber\u00a0and liver samples from 38 Arctic ringed seals were collected in Northern Labrador from 2009 to 2011.
\n\tIn 2010, when sea surface temperatures were +5.5 C above normal, seals showed depleted omega\u20113 and omega\u20116 fatty acids, increased saturated fats and thinner blubber layers \u2013 all signs of malnutrition.
\n\tLiver samples showed increased methionine sulfoxide, a biomarker of oxidative stress linked to inflammation, reduced immunity, metabolic\u00a0disorders\u00a0and reproductive impacts.\u00a0
\n\tArctic ringed seals are vital to Inuit food security and a key prey species for predators such as polar bears; their condition reflects the broader health of Arctic ecosystems.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0study, published in\u00a0Environmental Research<\/a>,\u00a0analyzed\u00a0samples 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers also measured mercury,\u00a0DDTs\u00a0(synthetic insecticides),\u00a0and chlordane,\u00a0used in\u00a0an old termite pesticide.<\/p>\n

Liver samples showed\u00a0consistently\u00a0high levels\u00a0of PCBs, mercury,\u00a0DDTs\u00a0and chlordane across all three years. These long\u2011lasting contaminants \u2014\u00a0several of which are\u00a0banned\u00a0internationally\u00a0\u2014 are known to cause oxidative stress,\u00a0a form of\u00a0cellular damage linked to inflammation, chronic disease, tissue injury and reduced reproductive health.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

\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.<\/p>\n

Climate change may worsen contaminant risks<\/p>\n

Persistent\u00a0contaminants\u00a0such as PCBs, DDTs and chlordane remain in Arctic ecosystems for decades because they break down slowly and travel long distances by air and water. They are also lipophilic \u2014 or \u201cfat\u2011loving\u201d \u2014 meaning marine mammals like seals store them in their blubber.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThinner, nutritionally stressed seals redistribute the contaminants they had stored in their blubber back into the bloodstream, which then circulates through their entire system,\u201d\u00a0Remili\u00a0explains. \u201cEven though our 2011 samples showed the seals\u00a0generally\u00a0rebounded from\u00a0the\u00a0malnutrition, we know that any\u00a0future nutritional stress may\u00a0compound the impacts of longer-term damage from oxidative stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rapid\u00a0sea\u2011ice loss and shifting marine food webs are already reshaping what and where seals eat; climate\u2011driven changes in ocean currents could flush more global pollutants into Arctic regions,\u00a0she says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Communities along the Labrador coast have long raised questions about how contaminants and warming conditions affect both the animals and the people who rely on them, Brown\u00a0adds. \u201cHealthy seal populations are essential for food security and cultural continuity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Journal<\/p>\n

Environmental Research<\/p>\n

Subject of Research<\/p>\n

Animals<\/p>\n

Article Title<\/p>\n

Climate variations and a local PCB hotspot have altered metabolomic profiles in ringed seals<\/p>\n

Article Publication Date<\/p>\n

1-Dec-2025<\/p>\n

COI Statement<\/p>\n

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image:\u00a0 SFU researchers take a blood sample from an Arctic ringed seal in Northern Labrador. Photo: Samuel Bentley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-484423","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\/484423","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=484423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}