Total blubber burden of organochlorine pollutants in phocid seals; methods and suggested standardization

The purpose of the present paper was to investigate methods for calculating the total blubber burden of organochlorine pollutants (OCs) in phocid seals. Harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) were used as the model species. A sample of fat pre-breeding adult females (N = 9) and a sample of thin moulting adult females (N = 7) were collected. From each animal blubber samples from five different body sites (complete blubber columns and samples from different blubber layers), in addition to a sample from a homogenate derived from the entire blubber mass, were analyzed for selected OCs. Significant differences in the concentrations of major OC contaminants were found between inner and outer blubber layer. Within each seal group, no significant difference in OC concentrations was found between homogenates from whole blubber columns from the five different sites of the animals or when comparing these with the OC concentrations found in the blubber sample deriving from a homogenate of the entire blubber mass. When comparing the two seal groups, the mean OC concentrations were significantly higher in the thin seals. However, blubber burden of OCs measured directly and calculated indirectly were not significantly different, and did not vary between the two groups of seals. Since these seals are of the same age and sex group and from the same population, this is not an unexpected result. The present results suggest that comparison of blubber concentrations of OCs in phocid seals should be avoided, especially when comparing differences between geographical areas or for time-trend analyses. For this type of study, we suggest that the blubber burden of OCs is applied as standard in the future. Furthermore, since blubber depth at a specific sampling site is required when using the estimator for calculation of the percent blubber content in phocid seals (the LMD-index), we suggest that this sampling site (central dorsally) is introduced as a standard when sampling blubber for OC analyses in phocid seals.