Audun Rikardsen – www.audunrikardsen.com
Marine chemical pollution that concentrates in the blubber of orcas – also known as killer whales – could wipe out half of all known populations within a century, marine biologists have warned. Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, threaten orcas by potentially disrupting reproduction, physically blocking reproductive organs and reducing sperm counts, leading to dwindling birth rates in exposed populations.
“What we see in other species is that PCBs affect reproductive organs,” says Jean-Pierre Desforges of Aarhus University in Denmark, and head of the analysis. “In Baltic ring seals, for example, they cause …