Rare whales killed off by banned chemicals

a POD of killer whales resident off the West Coast of Scotland faces being wiped out by banned chemicals in the environment, campaigners have warned.

They fear the group of eight have been left unable to breed by high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

a ninth member of the pod – which is known as the West Coast Community –was found dead on the Isle of Tiree after she became entangled in fishing lines in 2016.

Tests later revealed the body of a female whale called Lulu contained among the highest levels of PCBs ever recorded.

The chemicals, described by experts as ‘silent killers’, were banned in the 1970s but remain in the environment. The findings added to evidence that the pod faces extinction as there are no records of any calves being born into it in the last 25 years. Nicola Hodgins, policy manager at charity Whale and Dolphin

Conservation, says most of the pod have not been seen for years.

Referring to the screening of David attenborough’s Extinction: The Facts, on BBC1, she said: ‘You’ll have heard the tragic account of the group of orcas known as the West Coast Community. They face almost certain extinction because of human chemical pollution.

‘Sadly, it took the death of one of them – an orca named Lulu – to shed some light on the reason this group is in such trouble.

‘In recent years only two of the West Coast Community orcas have been spotted – John Coe and aquarius.

‘The other six may be dead now too, we just don’t know.

‘Orca photos taken around the west coast of mainland Britain have all been too distant or blurry to positively identify individuals. They’ve been studied since the early 1990s but in all these years they’ve never had a single calf.

‘No one knew why, but through her death, Lulu provided some answers.’

▪ Around 270 pilot whales have been found trapped by sandbars off the coast of the australian island of Tasmania.

Ninety have already died while rescuers returned 25 to the sea yesterday. More than 60 rescuers are racing to save the others.