Deep Blues
This is depressing:
Young Puget Sound orcas have more potentially toxic flame-retardant chemicals in their bodies than their elders, adding to evidence that the controversial chemicals could be hurting the endangered animals, according to a new report by Canadian and U.S. researchers.
Depressing, but perhaps not surprising. As top predators, orcas carry particularly heavy burdens of troublesome toxics -- compounds that adhere to fat, and that magnify in concentration at every successive step of the food chain. But orca babies are at the very tippy-top of the food chain; their milk comes from some of the most contaminated mothers on the planet.
Which makes Washington's flame retardant ban all the more important -- not just to orcas, but to all of the rest of us perched up on the top of the food chain.
