Tilen Genov/Slovenian Marine Mammal Society (Slovenia)
Some industrial chemicals that were banned more than 30 years ago are still being passed on to dolphins born today. A new study has found that pollutants called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), banned from use in Europe since the 1980s, persist in the Mediterranean Sea and show up in high quantities in bottlenose dolphins that swim those waters.
Male dolphins were found to have significantly higher concentrations of PCBs in their blubber than females, which suggests that females offload these pollutants to their offspring. “Once a female …
source: newscientist.com