Abstract
Abstract Blubber samples of dolphins collected in the south-east Indian Ocean all show traces of the persistent organochlorine compounds. The bottlenosed dolphin, which feeds close to shore, showed consistently higher levels than the common dolphin, which feeds further offshore. For both species, female cetaceans transfer approx. 80% of their residue load to their offspring during lactation. The DDE/t-DDT ratios indicate an ‘ageing’ of DDT in marine mammals from the south-east Indian Ocean, implying no major recent input of DDT to this region. The usefulness of organochlorines as chemical tracers in determining biological parameters is illustrated.
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