Whales Are Suffering from "Dramatic" and "Significant" Sunburn, Including Blisters and Changes in Skin Pigmentation | Photos

Original submission by pjacobs51:

http://current.com/news/92786551_increased-rate-of-sunburn-found-in-whales.htm

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This undated photo released in London Wednesday Nov. 9, 2010, by The Zoological Society of London, shows the blistered skin of a blue whale. (AP Photo/Diane Gendron-HO-Zoological Society of London)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8122026/Whales-sunburned-by-thinning-o...

Whales 'sunburned' by thinning ozone
The thinning ozone layer could be leaving the world's whales scarred from severe sunburn, experts have warned.

Whales spend extended periods of time on the ocean's surface
Photo: ALAMY
7:00AM GMT 10 Nov 2010

A study of whales in the Gulf of California over the past few years showed blisters and other symptoms typically associated with the skin damage that humans suffer from exposure to the ultraviolet radiation.

Whales would be particularly vulnerable to sunburn in part because they need to spend extended periods of time on the ocean's surface to breathe, socialise, and feed their young. Without fur or feathers to protect their skin, they are effectively sunbathing naked.

Laura Martinez-Levasseur, the study's lead author, said: "Humans can put on clothes or sunglasses - whales can't."

Ms Martinez-Levasseur, who works at Zoological Society of London, spent three years studying whales in the Gulf of California.

Photographs were taken of the whales to chart any visible damage, and small samples - taken with a crossbow-fired dart - were collected to examine the state of 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 mammals were showing lesions associated with sun damage, and many of their skin samples revealed patterns of dead cells associated with exposure to UV radiation.

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, even though the latter spend bigger chunks of time at the surface.

So far, there were no indications of skin cancer among the whales studied, although Ms Martinez-Levasseur, who is also a PhD student at Queen Mary, University of London, noted that only tiny samples were taken.

She said one of her next projects will be to examine how well whales' cells hold up under the increased UV radiation - and whether whales' pigmentation darkens as a result of their time spent out in the sun.

In other words, she wants "to be able to see if they're tanning."

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/11/whales-get-sunburns-too.html?ref=h...

Whales Get Sunburns, Too
by Virginia Morell on 9 November 2010, 7:03 PM | Permanent Link | 2

sn-cancerskin.jpg
Blistered. A sunburned blue whale surfaces in the Gulf of California, and a skin sample from a fin whale shows sun-damaged cells (inset).
Credit: Diana Gendron

In these ozone-depleted times, most of us reach for a T-shirt or a bottle of sunscreen to protect us from the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Whales don't have those luxuries—and they're paying the price. Researchers have found numerous cases of sunburned and blistered skin on whales in the wild, sparking concern that the thinned ozone layer may be causing skin cancer in these animals.

"Most people think that whales can't get sunburned because of their dark skins," says Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, a wildlife molecular epidemiologist at the Institute of Zoology in London. "But in the last decade, there have been increasing reports about skin lesions on whales and dolphins." Although some of the lesions may be due to pathogens, such as fungi and viruses, Acevedo-Whitehouse thought it likely that ultraviolet radiation (UVR) plays a role, too. UVR produces specific changes, including DNA damage, in skin cells, making it possible to identify the sun as the culprit.

Acevedo-Whitehouse, along with graduate student Laura Martinez-Levasseur of Queen Mary, University of London and colleagues, photographed and collected skin samples from more than 150 individuals of three cetacean species—sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), and fin whales (B. physalus)—in the Gulf of California over a 3-year period. The three species vary in the amount of pigmentation in their skin, with blue whales being the lightest in color and fin whales the darkest. In the lab, the researchers analyzed the skin biopsies, collected from darts shot at the whales, and identified numerous lesions that carried the telltale hallmarks of sun overexposure, including increased production of microvesicles, particles that help repair damaged tissue, and melanin pigments. As the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, 95% of the samples contained cells with sun damage; in 56% of the samples, the damage extended through every layer of skin, including the lowest, basal layer.

And, just as in humans, the lighter-skinned blue whales suffered more from the sun's rays, whereas the darkest whales, the fin whales, had the fewest abnormalities. Although darker than blue whales, sperm whales had almost the same amount of sun damage, perhaps because they spend more time at the surface breathing between dives, the researchers speculate. Also like fair-skinned humans, the blue whales seemed to respond to the sun's rays by producing more pigmented cells, which help repair sun-damaged skin and protect it from UVR.

Over the 3-year study period, the number of blue whales with blisters increased by 56%, suggesting that the ongoing ozone depletion may be causing more skin damage in whales, the team reports.

"The whales are being hammered by UV rays every day, every time they surface," says Acevedo-Whitehouse, who is continuing to study the long-term effects of UVR on the whales. "The big question now is whether their cellular repair mechanisms are being exceeded," which could lead to chronic health problems, including cancer. She notes, however, that her team has not found a case of skin cancer in any of the samples of whale skin it has examined thus far.

"It's a very important paper because it gives us a tool to recognize UVR-caused lesions in whales," says Marie-Françoise Van Bressem, a veterinary scientist and specialist on cetacean diseases at the Peruvian Centre for Cetacean Research in Pucusana. "It is easy for us to forget about UV rays because we can protect ourselves against [them]," she adds. "But the whales can't. They remind us: Ozone depletion is happening."

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/11/08/rspb.2010.1903.f...

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Abstract:

Acute sun damage and photoprotective responses in whales.

Click on link (above) to read the following abstract:

Acute sun damage and photoprotective responses in whales