Chemical trends and profiles reconstructions from matrices, such as sediment and ice cores, have provided valuable information regarding contaminant behavior and environmental fate, periods of stress, and climate change. Like all mammals, whales excrete earwax (cerumen) into their ear canals; however, select whale species accumulate cerumen over their lifetime (~20�100 years) forming earplugs. Therefore, whale earplugs may represent marine matrices capable of recording and archiving whales' lifetime contaminant profiles. An analytical method was developed to measure organic pollutants in whale cerumen utilizing enhanced pressurized liquid extraction (ePLE). ePLE extracts were analyzed for pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in electron capture negative ionization and electron impact modes with isotope dilution mass spectrometry. A historically archived gray whale earplug (1969) and a recently harvested blue whale earplug (2007) were analyzed for organic contaminants and mercury.

Reconstruction of pesticide, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and mercury profiles in gray and blue whale earplugs

245th National Meeting (2013)

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