Scientists: Whales show signs of sunburn
November 11, 2010, Thursday
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SCIENTISTS say some whale species off the Mexican coast are showing signs of severe sunburn that may be caused by the damaged ozone layer's decreased ability to block ultraviolet radiation.
The seagoing mammals would be particularly vulnerable to sun damage in part because they need to spend extended periods of time on the ocean's surface to breathe, socialize, and feed their young. Since they don't have fur or feathers, that effectively means they sunbathe naked.
As Laura Martinez-Levasseur, the study's lead author, put it: "Humans can put on clothes or sunglasses - whales can't."
Martinez-Levasseur, who works at Zoological Society of London, spent three years studying whales in the Gulf of California, the teeming body of water which separates Baja California from the Mexican mainland.
Photographs were taken of the whales to chart visible damage, and small samples - taken with a crossbow-fired dart - were collected to examine their skin cells.
Her study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, seemed to confirm suspicions first raised by one of her whale-watching colleagues: The beasts were showing lesions associated with sun damage, and many of their skin samples revealed patterns of dead cells associated with exposure to the powerful ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun.
As with humans, the lighter-skinned whales seemed to have the most difficulty dealing with the sun. Blue whales had more severe skin damage than their darker-skinned counterparts, fin whales and sperm whales.
(AP)
The seagoing mammals would be particularly vulnerable to sun damage in part because they need to spend extended periods of time on the ocean's surface to breathe, socialize, and feed their young. Since they don't have fur or feathers, that effectively means they sunbathe naked.
As Laura Martinez-Levasseur, the study's lead author, put it: "Humans can put on clothes or sunglasses - whales can't."
Martinez-Levasseur, who works at Zoological Society of London, spent three years studying whales in the Gulf of California, the teeming body of water which separates Baja California from the Mexican mainland.
Photographs were taken of the whales to chart visible damage, and small samples - taken with a crossbow-fired dart - were collected to examine their skin cells.
Her study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, seemed to confirm suspicions first raised by one of her whale-watching colleagues: The beasts were showing lesions associated with sun damage, and many of their skin samples revealed patterns of dead cells associated with exposure to the powerful ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun.
As with humans, the lighter-skinned whales seemed to have the most difficulty dealing with the sun. Blue whales had more severe skin damage than their darker-skinned counterparts, fin whales and sperm whales.
(AP)
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