We live in a chemical soup. It exists all around us and it
seems to be in everything that we do. No matter where we look, there is
something with a harmful chemical in it making its way to us. Many of these
chemicals cause cancer, and the majority of experts feel this is why there has
been a rise in cancer rates worldwide in recent years.
As it turns out, we are not the only ones living in a chemical soup. While we
can get away from the chemicals on occasion, those mammals in the sea are not
so lucky. They breathe it in and absorb it 24 hours a day. Naturally, this
means many have those chemicals within their bodies and a recent study by the University of Southern Maine confirms this.
By taking skin samples from whales, researchers found that there was an incredibly
high level of industrial pollutants in their bodies, which shows the high level
of industrial pollutants that are in the oceans. Researchers looked at the skin samples of 361 sperm whales over the course of
five years and they found that all but two of those whale skin samples
contained chromium, which is a heavy duty industrial pollutant that causes
cancer in humans. Since whales are a lot like us in many ways, it is no
surprise that it is causing even higher rates of cancer in them.
The oceans give us life, they provide for us, and we destroy them and pollute
them. We treat them as a giant sewer that we can throw all our refuse in. In
many ways, we do not deserve the life the oceans provide for us. They helped us
evolve into this world and with their sheer power and impact on the world’s
eco-systems, they can take us out of this world too.
Time to start showing the
oceans some respect.Instead of putting garbage and pollutants in the oceans, we should be protecting them. Their acidity is increasing, less carbon is being put into the oceans and our food supply from the oceans is crashing. These are not good times for the oceans, or ourselves.
