Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Fundraising
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent bycatch
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
North Atlantic right whale - Peter Flood

Whale AID 2023: A Night of Music and Hope for North Atlantic Right Whales

The inaugural Whale AID concert to support Whale and Dolphin Conservation's (WDC's) work to protect...
IMG_6030

Meet the 2023 Interns: Thomas Zoutis

I'm happy to introduce WDC's first Marine Mammal Conservation Intern of the year, Thomas Zoutis!...
MicrosoftTeams-image (9)

Double Your Impact for Marine Animal Rescue & Response

On a chilly day this past December, the WDC North America team celebrated the first...
20230126_091707

WDC’s Education Wishlist = Cleared!

To the WDC Community, I want to thank you so much for your support of...
Hysazu Photography

Looking forward for Southern Resident orcas in 2023

Hysazu Photography 2022 was a big year for Southern Resident orcas - 2022 brought the...
Credit: Seacoast Science Center

The Unlikely Adventure of Shoebert, a Young Grey Seal Who Visited an Industrial Park Pond

Credit: Seacoast Science Center In mid-September, our stranding partners in northern Massachusetts were inundated with...
Leaping harbour porpoise

The power of harbour porpoise poo

We know we need to save the whale to save the world. Now we are...
Right whale - Regina WDC

Whale and Dolphin Conservation: Change Through Policy.

WDC focuses on education, research, conservation projects, and policy work to create a sustainable future...

What you can’t see can hurt you…

Ashley Shaffert

The acne medications and facial scrubs in my cabinet belong, sadly, not to my teenagers, but to me. While I have lots more to worry about than my face breaking out, it’s not my favorite thing to deal with, or talk about …yet here I am sharing with the world as is if this is news of some sort. The breaking news here is not that I have bad skin, but that the choices I have been making to deal with it may be harmful to me, you, and the whales I’ve dedicated my life to protecting.

I am spending this week at the International Whaling Commission’s Marine Debris Workshop in Woods Hole, MA. Scientists and policy makers from around the world are gathering to discuss marine debris, a problem that the Director of NOAA’s Marine Debris Program astutely pointed out is something that we can all do something about. According to Nancy Wallace, everyone from young children to grandmothers can take action, from making choices about the products we buy to picking up trash to the old, but still applicable standby of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

But back to my facial scrubs. According to Dr. Christina Fossi of the University of Sienna, microplastics, tiny beads of plastics that are nearly invisible to the naked eye (think one to five grains of sugar), are polluting our oceans. Her study found 892,000 microplastics / Km2 floating in the Mediterranean (imagine moving the entire population of Chicago to Central Park). Some of these tiny pieces of plastics are the result of fragments from degradation of plastic debris. But some of them are “primary” sourced, i.e. they are plastic pellets made to seed the plastics industry, or made specifically to be used as an abrasive in a variety of products, from facial scrubs to toothpastes. From your drain to a river or stream, many of these tiny pieces of plastic eventually end up in the ocean to be mistaken for food by birds or fish or even whales.

Ingesting the plastic itself would seem to be enough of a problem to consider but that’s just the tip of the proverbial chemical-burg. Microplastics are carriers of lipophilic chemicals like phthalates which have been linked to breast cancer, reproductive failures, and metabolic problems. Like static cling, these chemicals loosely attach to the plastics and, once ingested, mix with stomach acids and detach from their plastic host and enter the blood stream of the consumer. These chemicals are known as endocrine disruptors because they can then wreak havoc on the hormone systems of mammals, including whales and humans. Dr. Fossi’s team has found phthalate metabolites in zooplankton and fin whales in the Mediterranean. At the same time, the fin whale population in the Med has decreased by a factor of six over the last 20 years. It is possible that this decline can be, in part, attributed to the reproductive failures resulting from chemical exposure.

But as Dr. Wallace said, this is an issue in which we can all make a difference. Thanks to a collaborative European campaign by a number of non-profits, “beat the microbead” has resulted in Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal and Beiersdorf ending their use of micro beads and Unilever is following suit. And thanks to plasticsoup.org and the North Sea Foundation, there’s an app for that! By downloading the app, you can scan products and determine if microbeads are included, helping all of us making better choices and take actions. And don’t forget the old adage of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle- it matters!