On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet series, we're discussing why 20 percent of adult California sea lions are dying from cancer. Scientists at The Marine Mammal Center studied 20 years of research and found that cancer is caused by sea lions’ exposure to toxins in the oceans, including DDT.
Between the 1940s and 1980s, the company Montrose dumped more than 500,000 DDT barrels off the coast of southern California. What does this mean for the future population of sea lions?
Guest:
Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center
Web Resources:
The Marine Mammal Center: Significant Cancer Rates in California Sea Lions Have Major Human Health Implications