Tracking Marine Pollution

Visit a beach almost anywhere and you will see plastic waste floating in the water and heaped above the tide lines. That debris is both a source and an overt signal of the even more pervasive contamination of marine biota by persistent chemicals. Present at ultra-trace levels but often highly toxic,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2013-05, Vol.340 (6132), p.556-558
Main Authors: Elliott, John E., Elliott, Kyle H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beaches
Chemicals
Contaminants
Eggs
Marine
Marine fishes
Marine pollution
Ocean pollution
Oceans
Persistent organic pollutants
PERSPECTIVES
Pollution monitoring
Sea birds
Species
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Summary:Visit a beach almost anywhere and you will see plastic waste floating in the water and heaped above the tide lines. That debris is both a source and an overt signal of the even more pervasive contamination of marine biota by persistent chemicals. Present at ultra-trace levels but often highly toxic, chemical pollutants can be challenging to measure and understand. As the most problematic compounds biomagnify in food chains, sampling of marine top predators yields a global picture of ocean pollution.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1235197