Pollution threatens
toothed whales
In their Report “Ancient convergent losses
of Paraoxonase 1 yield potential risks formodern marine mammals” (10 August, p.
591), W. K. Meyer et al. show that marine
mammals are particularly vulnerable toadverse health effects from organophosphorus pesticide pollution because of afunctional loss of the primary mammalian metabolic defense mechanism—theParaoxonase 1 gene. Unfortunately, thisfinding is just one example of an evolutionary deficiency that puts marine
mammals at increased risk for modernday pollution.
Toothed whales, which originated in
the mid-Eocene from herbivorous artiodactyls (cloven-hooved land mammals)(1), also show a reduced metabolic ability
to eliminate persistent environmental
pollutants such as biomagnifiable polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) comparedwith carnivorous predators such as polar
bears (Ursus maritimus), seals and walruses, and humans (2, 3). Because theylack the ability to filter these chemicals,
extreme concentrations of PCBs andmercury have been found in high trophicfeeding cetaceans, including killer whales(Orcinus orca) (4, 5). Moreover, toothed
whales lack the keratinous pollutant
sequestration routes, such as hair, thatrelieve carnivorous marine mammals
from their contaminant burden, including
mercury (5).
Given the vulnerability of marine mammals, global regulation and remediation
1208

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are vulnerable to environmental pollutants.

of harmful marine pollutants, includingorganophosphorus compounds and PCBs,
should be urgently prioritized by theUnited Nations Environment Programme,
the Stockholm Convention, and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (6, 7).
Failing to protect these cetaceans could
lead to pollution-mediated population
collapses (8, 9) and an irreversible loss of
biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Christian Sonne,1* Paul D. Jepson,2 JeanPierre Desforges,1 Aage K. O. Alstrup,3Morten T. Olsen,4 Igor Eulaers,1 Martin
Hansen,1 Robert J. Letcher,5 Melissa A.
McKinney,6 Rune Dietz1
1Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark. 2Institute ofZoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK.
3Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. 4University of
Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. 5Environmentand Climate Change Canada, Carleton University,Ottawa, ON, Canada. 6McGill University, Ste-Annede-Bellevue, QC, Canada.
*Corresponding author. Email: cs@bios.au.dk
REFERENCES

1. J. G. M. Thewissen et al., Nature 450, 20 (2007).
2. M. A. McKinney et al., Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 30, 7 (2011).
3. S. Kim et al., Genome Biol. 17, 211 (2016).
4. R. J. Letcher et al., Sci. Total Environ. 408, 2995 (2010).
5. R. Dietz et al., Sci. Total Environ. 443, 775 (2013).
6. A. M. Milner, I. L. Boyd, Science 357, 1232 (2017).
7. R. J. Law, P. D. Jepson, Science 356, 148 (2017).
8. P. D. Jepson, R.J. Law, Science 352, 1388 (2016).
9. P. D. Jepson et al., Sci. Rep. 6, 18573 (2016).

10.1126/science.aav2403

Good governance for
migratory species
In their Policy Forum “Preparing ocean
governance for species on the move” (15June, p. 1189), M. L. Pinsky et al. discuss
the need to cooperatively govern fisheriesaffected by climate change. This idea is

not new to Pacific Island states, which supply 30% of the global tuna catch (1). TheParties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) (2)provide a shining example of how to equitably share the benefits from fishing forskipjack tuna, which move not only among
the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of theisland countries but also in response toclimate (3). The PNA’s “vessel day scheme”(VDS) (4) was developed explicitly to cooperatively manage these highly migratory
tuna species within the combined EEZs ofthe PNA members.
The cap and trade VDS sets the total
annual purse-seine fishing effort at~45,000 days (i.e., fishing by all vessels
must add up to no more than the ~45,000days mandated for the year) and allocatesthe days to PNA members based on thepast 7 years of catch history. The VDS
provides a trading mechanism among
PNA members, allowing them to respondto the profound effects of the El Niño
Southern Oscillation on the prime fishinggrounds for skipjack tuna (3). During
La Niña episodes, the best catches are
made toward the west of the region (3,5). During El Niño events, fishing is mostefficient up to 4000 km to the east (5).
During La Niña events, countries in thewest buy days from members in the eastto enable fleets to keep fishing in their
EEZs. The reverse occurs during El Niño
episodes. Thus, regardless of where thefish are caught, all PNA members receive
license revenue. The stock for skipjack
tuna has remained robust under thiscooperative arrangement (6).
The VDS is also designed to govern thefishery as skipjack tuna redistribute tothe east due to climate change (7, 8). Overtime, PNA members located in the east
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LET TERSINSIGHTS

will progressively accumulate a greater
catch history and receive more days.
Cooperative arrangements will need to be
more common as climate change drives
shifts in species distribution, and thePacific Islands are leading the way.
1,2,3

Transform Aqorau,
John N. Kittinger4,53,4Johann Bell, *1

iTUNA Intel and Pacific Catalyst, Honiara, Solomon
Islands. 2School of Government, Development, andInternational Affairs, University of the South Pacific,Suva, Fiji. 3Australian National Centre for Ocean
Resources and Security, University of Wollongong,Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. 4Center forOceans, Conservation International, Honolulu, HI96825, USA. 5Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute ofSustainability, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes,
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA.
*Corresponding author.
Email: jbell@conservation.org
REFERENCES

Science outreach in the Borneo jungle
A group of high school students at a remote school in the Borneo jungle surrounded
my outreach team. They asked us to autograph their books, friend them on Facebook,and pose with them for selfies, all smiles and excitement as we set up for a farewellchemistry show 8000 km from our home in New Zealand.
Three days before, we had spent 5 hours on a boat to reach the boarding schoolat Balleh. The indigenous Iban students and their teachers live at the school during
the week and spend only weekends with their families. Our host, a teacher training
college in Kuching, had invited us to forge a partnership with
the Balleh school. To make it work, we knew that we would
Call for submissions
have to overcome language and cultural barriers. Throughout
Outside the Tower isthe activities, we encouraged the teachers to participate byan occasional feature
highlighting scientists’asking them to translate important words into Malay and Iban
advocacy experiences.
and help us with pronunciation. Although the 200 students
Submit your advocacy
were accustomed to book-focused lessons, we used humor
story at http://cts.
and charm to encourage their participation in our hands-on
sciencemag.org.
activities. We showed them how to use local flowers and leaves
as pH indicators and practiced measuring skills by finding the density of liquids andpreparing acetate stalagmites for a class competition.
As darkness descended on the final day, we began our show. “Oohs” and “aahs”
echoed up into the night as we shared some of our favorite chemistry demonstrations. Afterward, the kids went off to bed chattering excitedly, and I sat down withthe team, themselves buzzing with creative energy and already discussing plans toreturn next year.
This successful pilot visit marked the beginning of a 3-year partnership between
the institutions. Otago volunteers learned to appreciate a variety of cultures as they
worked with schools around Sarawak, the high school students experienced scienceand scientists in a different light, and their teachers benefited from workshops that
helped them develop a new, more engaging, approach to their science teaching.
Dave Warren
Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, Otago 9054, New Zealand. Email: dwarren@chemistry.otago.ac.nz

10.1126/science.aav2051
10.1126/science.aat6367

TECHNICAL COMMENT ABSTRACTS
Comment on “U-Th dating of carbonate
crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberiancave art”
Ludovic Slimak, Jan Fietzke, Jean-Michel
Geneste, Roberto Ontañón
Hoffmann et al. (Reports, 23 February 2018,p. 912) report the discovery of parietal art
older than 64,800 years and attributed toNeanderthals, at least 25 millennia before
the oldest parietal art ever found. Instead,
critical evaluation of their geochronological
data seems to provide stronger support foran age of 47,000 years, which is much moreconsistent with the archaeological background in hand.
Full text: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aau1371

PHOTO: DAVE WARRENERRATA
Erratum for the Report “Precursors oflogical reasoning in preverbal humaninfants” by N. Cesana-Arlotti et al., Science361, eaav4136 (2018). Published online 21
September 2018; 10.1126/science.aav4136

Students at a boarding school in Borneo conduct hands-on science experiments.

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1. Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, “FFA economicand development indicators and statistics 2016” (2016);
www.ffa.int/node/1877.
2. PNA Tuna, Nauru Agreement (2010); www.pnatuna.com/content/nauru-agreement.
3. P. Lehodey et al., Nature 389, 715 (1997).
4. PNA Office, Purse Seine Vessel Day Scheme (Majuro,Parties to the Nauru Agreement Office, 2011).
5. P. Lehodey et al., in Vulnerability of Tropical PacificFisheries and Aquaculture to Climate Change, J. D. Bell etal., Eds. (Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea,
New Caledonia, 2011), chap. 8.
6. Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, “Tuna fisheryreport card 2017” (2017); www.ffa.int/system/files/
Tuna_fishery_report_card_2017.pdf.
7. J. D. Bell et al., Nat. Clim. Change 3, 591 (2013).
8. J. D. Bell et al., in “Impacts of climate change on fisheries
and aquaculture,” M. Barange et al., Eds. (FAO Fisheries
and Aquaculture Technical Paper 627, Rome, 2018),
chap. 14; www.fao.org/3/I9705EN/i9705en.pdf.

OUTSIDE THE TOWER

Good governance for migratory species
Transform Aqorau, Johann Bell and John N. Kittinger

Science 361 (6408), 1208-1209.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aav2051

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