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MERI's research activities include multidisciplinary
ecotoxicological research projects and research dissemination.
Ecotoxicology is broad in scope and involves the measurement
of exposure and effects of environmental pollutants in marine
mammals. Our studies typically require extensive tissue collection
and analysis, as well as the collection of clinical, biological,
cellular, molecular, and other kinds of data. To conduct a
large-scale multidisciplinary study such as MERI's Pacific
Coast Seal Biomarker Study, a team of veterinary pathologists,
toxicologists, population biologists, biochemists, immunologists,
endocrinologists, and epidemiologists must share their knowledge
and skills
As integrators of pollutants, marine mammals
are useful environmental indicator species for ocean ecosystems.
More importantly, their biological responses to pollutants
("biomarkers") make them models for potentially
harmful effects in humans who are similarly exposed through
the food chain. Like marine mammals, humans are omnivorous
predators and accumulate PCBs and other biologically persistent
pollutants through fish consumption. In addition, marine mammals
are potentially concentrated sources of these contaminants
among certain high-risk groups such as the Inuit who consume
them.
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In addition to providing information about the health of
the oceans, ecotoxicology studies can have predictive value
for human health. Scientists working in the Great Lakes region,
in the Baltic, in the Arctic, and elsewhere have demonstrated
that these studies have predicted human health risks from
exposure to organochlorines through the food chain, notably
in human infants of fish-consuming mothers. The infants and
children of certain populations such as the Inuit are at higher
risk for organochlorine toxicity because their mothers consume
fatty fish and contaminated marine mammal products.
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