SC/F16/JR34

A note on POPs and Hg accumulation in sperm whalebased on JARPNII samples collected during 2001-2013
GENTA YASUNAGA AND YOSHIHIRO FUJISE
Institute of Cetacean Research, 4-5 Toyomi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0055, Japan
Contact e-mail:yasunaga@cetacean.jp

ABSTRACT
Total Hg was determined in 13 liver and 33 muscle samples of sperm whales (Physetermacrocephalus) obtained from the western North Pacific by JARPNII in the period 2001-2013.
In addition PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, HCB and CHLs were determined in three blubber samples fromsperm whales sampled in 2012. Mean concentrations of total Hg in muscle of sperm whales in
the periods 2001-2005 and 2011-2013 were 1.9 and 1.5 (ppm wet wt.), respectively. No
significant difference was observed in their Hg levels between the two periods. Mean
concentrations of PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, HCB and CHLs in blubber samples in 2012 were 1.9,0.74, 0.040, 0.077 and 0.65 (µg/g fat wt.), respectively. Levels of Hg in muscle samples of spermwhales in the present study were slightly lower than those from Ayukawa, Japan in 1978 and1979, and from the southern North Sea in 1994 and 1995. Levels of organochlorines, except forCHLs, in sperm whales from the western North Pacific were similar or lower than those in sperm
whales from the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere nearby human activity. In addition,
there is no evidence that levels of total Hg in muscle of sperm whales increased in the period of1970s to 2000s.
KEYWORDS: SPERM WHALE; MERCURY; ORGANOCHLORINES; NORTH PACIFIC;POLLUTANTS; PCB; DDTINTRODUCTION
Mercury and organochlorine compounds (OCs) released into the environment remain in the marineecosystem due to their highly persistent character. Systematic monitoring programs of the Hg and OCs
are needed to monitor and predict the behavior and fate of these pollutants in the global environment. The
North Pacific, a mid-latitude sea area in the northern hemisphere is important for environmental
monitoring of the Hg and OCs, because of its vicinity to high human activity land regions. Therefore,
continued monitoring in this area could provide valuable information on the global dynamics of thesepollutants.
For this reason, monitoring of pollutants in large whales and the ecosystem were added to a part of thesecond objective of the JARPNII survey. Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are comparatively
large in size and are abundant in the North Pacific ecosystem. However, there is little information about
pollutants in sperm whales in the western North Pacific.
The one of the objectives of pollutant studies in the JARPNII is to monitor levels and fate of Hg andOCs, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethanes and its metabolites(DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and chlordane compounds(CHLs), in sperm whales. However, most of the samples that had been taken for this study since 2008
were lost after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami (see IWC, 2012). Therefore, the limited number ofsamples not affected by the disaster was compared with samples from sperm whales in previous studies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
13 liver and 33 muscle samples of sperm whales taken form the western North Pacific were analyzed forthe total Hg, and PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, HCB and CHLs were measured in 3 blubber samples (Tables 1, 2).
All samples were cryopreserved in polyethylene bags at -20°C until analysis.
Total Hg analyses of the liver and muscle samples were performed in the Institute of Cetacean Researchand the Japan Food Research Laboratories (Tokyo, Japan) according to the public analytical method ofJapan (Japan Ministry of Welfare, 1973).

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In the laboratory, OCs were determined by a GC-ECD (Hewlett Packard 5890 Series) and by GC-MS(JEOL Ltd., JMS-700; JMS-SX102A). Chemical analysis of the OCs was carried out using the standard
method described by Environmental Agency of Japan, with some modifications (Japan Environmental
Agency, 1998). Concentrations of OCs were expressed on a fat weight basis. Accuracy and precision ofthe methods were confirmed using 'Organics in cod liver oil' (NIST 1588a). Chemical analyses wereperformed by the Miura Institute of Environmental Science.
Difference of Hg concentrations in the muscle of sperm whales in the periods 2001-2005 and 2011-2013
was assessed by Mann-Whitney U test. A p value of less than 0.05 was used as the criterion of statisticalsignificance. These statistical analyses were executed with PASW Statics 17.0 for Windows (SPSS Co.
Ltd.).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Mean concentrations of total Hg in muscle of female sperm whales in the periods 2001-2005 and 20112013 were 1.9 and 1.5 (ppm wet wt.), respectively. No significant difference was observed in their Hglevels between the two periods (p < 0.05). Mean concentrations of PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, HCB and CHLs
in blubber samples in 2012 were 1.9, 0.74, 0.040, 0.077 and 0.65 (µg/g fat wt.), respectively.
Hg
Mean concentrations of Hg in liver and muscle of sperm whales from the western North Pacific in thisstudy were two or three times higher than those of sperm whales from the southern North Sea (Table 3,Holsbeek et al., 2015), whereas they were slightly lower than those of sperm whales from Ayukawa,Japan in 1978-1979 (Taguchi et al., 1981). Hg accumulation level in whales is affected by age, Hg levelsin their prey items, prey consumption, etc. And, Hg levels in their prey items, increase with trophic level(Konovalov, 2000), and background levels of Hg in open oceans are comparatively similar in the world’soceans (Sohrin and Issiki, 2005). Therefore, geographical difference of Hg levels among the same species
could be mainly caused by food habitat and/or age.
Organochlorines
Mean concentrations of PCBs in blubber of sperm whales from the western North Pacific in this study
were one order of magnitude lower than those of sperm whales from the North western Mediterranean
Sea (Table 3, Pinzone et al., 2015), whereas they were similar to those of sperm whales from Tasmania,
Australia (Table 3, Evans et al., 2003) and southern North Sea (Table 3, Holsbeek et al., 2015).
Mean concentrations of DDTs in blubber of sperm whales from the western North Pacific in this study
were one or two orders of magnitude lower than those of sperm whales from Tasmania Australia, North
western Mediterranean Sea and southern North Sea (Table 3, Evans et al., 2003; Pinzone et al., 2015;
Holsbeek et al., 2015).
Mean concentrations of HCHs in blubber of sperm whales from the western North Pacific in this study
were similar to those of sperm whales from Tasmania Australia (Table 3, Evans et al., 2003) and southern
North Sea (Table 3, Holsbeek et al., 2015), and those of males of sperm whales from North western
Mediterranean Sea (Table 3, Pinzone et al., 2015) were one order of magnitude lower than those offemales of sperm whales from North western Mediterranean Sea (Table 3, Pinzone et al., 2015).
Mean concentrations of HCB in blubber of sperm whales in this study were about 5 times lower thanthose of sperm whales from southern North Sea (Table 3, Holsbeek et al., 2015).
Levels of OCs, except for CHLs, in sperm whales from the western North Pacific were similar or lower
than those in sperm whales from the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere nearby human activity.
In addition, there is no evidence that total Hg in muscle of sperm whales increased in the period of 1970s
to 2000s.
REFERENCES
Evans, K., Hindell, M. and Hince, G. 2004. Concentrations of organochlorines in sperm whales (Physetermacrocephalus) from Southern Australian waters. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 8(5-6):486-503.
Holsbeek, L., Joiris, C.R., Debacker, V., Ali, I.B., Roose, P., Nellissen, J.-P., Gobert, S., Bouquegneau,J.-M. and Bossicart, M. 1999. Heavy metals, organochlorines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
in sperm whales stranded in the southern North Sea during the 1994/1995 winter. Mar. Pollut. Bull.
38(4):304-313.

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International Whaling Commission. 2012. Report of the Scientific Committee. Annex P1. Effect of theMarch 11th earthquake and tsunami on JARPAII/JARPNII data and samples. J. Cetacean Res.
Manage. (Suppl.) 13:308-9.
Japan Environmental Agency. 1998. Analytical Manual for Dioxins in Soils. Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese;www.env.go.jp/chemi/dioxin/dojo-manual.pdf).
Japan Ministry of Welfare. 1974. Provisional regulatory standards for the level of mercury in fish andshellfish, Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese).
Konovalov, Y.D. 2000. Mercury in the fish organism (A review). Hydrobiol. J. 36:51-65.
Pinzone, M., Budzinski, H., Tasciotti, A., Ody, D., Lepoint, G., Schnitzler, J., Scholl, G., Thomé, J.-P.,
Tapie, N., Eppe, G. and Das, K. 2015. POPs in free-ranging pilot whales, sperm whales and fin
whales from the Mediterranean Sea: Influence of biological and ecological factors. Environ. Res.
142:185–196.
Sohrin, Y. and Issiki, K. (ed.) 2005. Chemistry of Ocean and lake. Kyoto University Press, Kyoto, 560pp.
Taguchi, M., Yasuda, K., Kurosawa, S. and Storro-Patterson, R. 1981. Mercury levels in whale meat soldin Japan. Paper SC/32/O11 presented to the Scientific Commitee of International Whaling
Commission.

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Table 1. Sample list of sperm whales taken from JARPNII surveys
Sexn
Body length*
Survey year
2001
male
2
9.59 (8.98-10.20)
female69.91 (9.14-11.03)
2002
male
2
9.26 (8.42-10.10)
female39.79 (8.71-10.40)
2003
male
1
7.87
female910.41 (8.33-11.51)
2005
male
3
10.12 (9.15-10.94)
female2
9.09 (8.90-9.28)
2011
female
1
10.15
2012
male
1
8.71
female210.68 (9.84-11.51)
female1
7.36
2013*: Average and ranges in parentheses
Table 2. Concentrations of total Hg (ppm wet wt.) in liver and muscle, and PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, HCB and CHLs (µg/g fat wt.) inblubber of sperm whales taken from JARPN II surveys
Year

2001

2002

ID No.

Sex

2001NP-S001
2001NP-S002
2001NP-S003
2001NP-S004
2001NP-S005
2001NP-S006
2001NP-S007
2001NP-S008
2002NP-S001
2002NP-S002
2002NP-S003
2002NP-S004
2002NP-S005

F
M
F
F
M
F
F
F
F
M
F
F
M
F
F
M
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
M
M
F
M
F

2003NP-S001
2003NP-S002
2003NP-S003
2003NP-S004
2003NP-S005
2003
2003NP-S006
2003NP-S007
2003NP-S008
2003NP-S009
2003NP-S010
2005NP-S001
2005NP-S002
2005
2005NP-S003
2005NP-S004
2005NP-S005
Males
2001-2005 Females
Total
2011
2011NP-S001
2012NP-S001
2012
2012NP-S002
2012NP-S003
2013
2013NP-S001
Males
2011-2013 Females
Total

F
M
F
F
F

Hg
Liver
250
17100
110
7.6
4827
13150
43.2
150
27

Muscle

144.6
2.2
2.4
3.1
1.4
2.5
1.9
1.7
2.6
0.98
1.2
3.8
1.7
1.1
1.8
0.75
2.1
2.2
1.4
1.5
0.96
1.2
1.6
1.6
2.2
1.9
2.2
1.5
1.6

95
70

2.0
1.9
2.7
1.4
2.0
0.89
0.55
1.4
1.5
1.5

PCBs
Blubber

DDTs
Blubber

HCHs
Blubber

HCB
Blubber

CHLs
BlubberFat (%)
Blubber

2.8
1.4
1.6

1.0
0.51
0.71

0.057
0.021
0.042

0.12
0.038
0.072

1.0
0.38
0.57

66.9
65.1
55.8

2.8
1.5
1.9

1.0
0.61
0.74

0.057
0.032
0.0400.12
0.055
0.077

1.00.48
0.65

66.9
60.5
62.6

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6M2

1978-1979

14F
18±12

0.82±0.16
2.7

5.3±0.9

16.9±7.2

24.2±17.4

47M

0.8±0.4
1.3±1.2

unknown

32F

5M

1994-1995

2006-20131998

13±2.817.4±11.2

44.2±41.9

3.1±3.6

1.7±1.9

0.04±0.01

0.21±0.00

0.085±0.092

ND

0.01±0.1

0.45±0.09*: Original values (µg/g lipid wt.) were converted to ppm lipid wt.
**: Data of only live standing samples was used. Original values (µg/g dry wt.) were converted to ppm lipid wt. using with lw/dw cofficients.

Southern North Sea(stranding samples)
Ayukawa, Japan(commercial whaling)

North western Mediterranean
Sea (biopsy samples)

Tasmania, Australia(stranding samples)

2.5±0.3

0.9±0.2

2.1±2.8

2.1±1.0

2.1±1.90.55±0.02

9.6±3.0

9.6±3.3

0.7±0.2

0.6±0.2

18±8

10±8

50.4±18.1

Taguchi et al. (1981)

Holsbeek et al. (1999)**

Pinzone et al. (2015)*

41.3±15.6 Evans et al. (2003)

Table 3. Mean and standard deviation concentrations of total mercury (ppm wet wt.) in liver and muscle and OCs (ppm lipid wt.) in blubber of sperm whales reported from different part of the world
Hg (ppm wet wt.)
Age or
PCBs
DDTs
HCHs
HCB
CHLs
DDTs/PCBs DDE/DDTs Lipid (%)
Location
Survey yearn (sex)
References
Liver
MuscleBlubber
Blubber
Blubber
Blubber
Blubber
Blubber
Blubber
Blubber
Maturity

SC/F16/JR345