"DDT Found In Deep-Sea Fish Raises Troubling Concerns For Food Web"

"For several years now, one question has held the key to understanding just how much we should worry about the hundreds of tons of DDT that had been dumped off the coast of Los Angeles:

How, exactly, has this decades-old pesticide — a toxic chemical spread across the seafloor 3,000 feet underwater — continued to reenter the food web?

Now, in a highly anticipated study, researchers have identified tiny zooplankton and mid-to-deep-water fish as potential links between the contaminated sediment and the greater ecosystem.

For the first time, chemical analyses confirmed that these deep-sea organisms are contaminated by numerous DDT-related compounds that match similar chemical patterns found on the seafloor and animals higher up on the food chain."

Rosanna Xia reports for the Los Angeles Times May 6, 2024.

SEE ALSO:

"DDT Pollutants Found In Deep Sea Fish Off LA Coast Raise Questions About The Pesticide's Continuing Threat To Wildlife" (U.Cal. San Diego)