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• Main Author: Orcinus Orca
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: P; Canada; Pacific; Orca
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.589.4103; http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/robin/Krahnetal2009MPB.pdf

m llut blubber. Maternal transfer of contaminants to the juveniles during rapid development of their biological systems may put these young whales at greater risk than adults for adverse health effects (e.g., immune orca) fo laska i lation gered ” in Canada in 2001 and the US in 2005. Although the population had rebounded to 91 whales by 2005, the July 2008 count was only 85 individuals (Carretta et al., 2007; Center for Whale Research, 2008). The population decrease in the late 1990s was accompanied by large differences in survival rates among age classes, sexes, and pods, suggesting external causes, such as environmental conditions (e.g., El Niño events) during mals (de Swart et al., 1994; Hall et al., 2006; Jepson et al., 2005; O’Hara and O’Shea, 2001; Ross et al., 1995). Furthermore, immune dysfunction, thyroid disruption and neurotoxicity were observed in laboratory animals exposed to PBDE congeners (de Wit, 2002; Eriksson et al., 2001, 2002). High levels of POPs (e.g., PCBs and DDTs) were found in blubber of eastern North Pacific killer whales in a few early studies (Calambokidis et al., 1984; Hayteas and Duf-