Ecotoxicological biomarkers and accumulation of contaminants in pinnipeds

Pinnipeds are long-lived predators with amphibious lifestyles, often residing in remote environments. Environmental contaminants as well as other stressors due to anthropogenic impacts into their habitat are known to affect the immune and endocrine system in seals and to affect marine mammal health status and increase their susceptibility to infectious disease. Pinnipeds are under a continuous pressure of anthropogenic activities such as fisheries, ship traffic, oil exploration, and chemical and noise pollution. This has prompted many studies over the past decades to evaluate the effects of cumulative stress on the health of these marine mammals. Different approaches have been used to assess the effects of contaminants on the health of marine mammals and better understand the impact on their physiology. To evaluate detrimental changes potentially caused by xenobiotics on wildlife health, parameters of biological processes with prognostic or diagnostic explanatory power, so called biomarkers need to be found. An overview about parameters used as markers to measure exposure and effects is given in the following chapter, combining long-standing, established methods with new techniques that are promising future tools.