Study Will Focus on the Impact of PFAS In Harbor Seals Over a 30-year Period
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2025 – Blue Hill, Maine – After a highly competitive process, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded the Shaw Institute a $150,000 Prescott Grant to study the impact of PFAS contamination in Harbor Seals over a 30-year period.
The research associated with the grant will be instrumental in learning the path of PFAS chemicals up the entire food chain, into Harbor Seals, providing a vast new body of knowledge.
“Through our own research and that of others, we’ve seen significant progress in our understanding of how PFAS chemicals can affect human health,” said Dr. Charlie Rolsky, the Shaw Institute’s Executive Director and Senior Research Scientist. “What we now need to know is how these forever chemicals affect the health of the natural world, and this grant will be critical in advancing that knowledge. It’s the largest grant we have ever received, which we don’t take lightly.”
Rolsky said the research will have three primary goals:
- Analyze PFAS contamination in harbor seals from the northwest Atlantic over a 30-year time frame to see if contamination patterns have changed after legislative bans on certain chemicals.
- Determine whether PFAS contamination varies by age, sex, or geographic region to understand which populations might be at greatest risk.
- Determine if PFAS contamination negatively impacts seal health.
These goals will be achieved over 1-2 years through a collaborative effort between the Shaw Institute, Allied Whale, Marine Mammals of Maine, the Center for Wildlife Studies, and external analytical labs including Maine Laboratories and NYU Langone.
“The timely data collected by the Stranding and Entanglement Response Networks provide vital input in our conservation management,” said Kim Damon-Randall, Director of the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. “The information collected helps us better understand how many marine mammal populations—which are important indicators of ocean and climate health—are adversely impacted by human activities and climate change.”
Also weighing in with a comment is Maine State Senator, Nicole Grohoski: “We are thrilled that the Shaw Institute has been awarded this grant to advance critical research on PFAS contamination in Maine’s harbor seals. We are confident that the project will contribute to the well-being of our state and its natural resources and are proud to support this effort.”
For more information on the Shaw Institute, please visit ShawInstitute.org. For more information about the NOAA Prescott Grant, please click HERE.
About Shaw Institute
Shaw Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit scientific research organization based in Blue Hill, Maine. Established nearly 35 years ago, the Institute’s mission is to work to discover and expose environmental threats to the health and wellbeing of people, wildlife and the environments we share. Our research on plastics, ocean pollution, marine mammal health, toxic chemicals, and climate change has informed public opinion and influenced public policy, impacting millions of people in Maine, the U.S. and worldwide.
About NOAA John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program
Prescott Grants support a core mission of NOAA Fisheries—the conservation and recovery of protected marine species—by providing important federal funding to our partners in the Marine Mammal Stranding and Entanglement Response Networks. Our Marine Mammal Stranding and Entanglement Response Network partners use Prescott funds to respond to marine mammal stranding or entanglement events, improve capacity for response to strandings and entanglements, provide rehabilitation, and to conduct scientific investigations into the cause(s) of strandings or entanglements. Shaw Institute was chosen because they propose to investigate long term trends of PFAS contamination in marine mammals while examining the impact of legislative bans in industrial use. This analysis has benefit to the network’s investigation into health threats to marine mammals and human health.
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