ABSTRACT
The study of marine mammal toxicology is a relatively recent area of research. This chapter provides a chronological summary of advances in knowledge about marine mammals and persistent ocean contaminants, beginning with the 1940s. We summarize major findings and advances for each decade in the context of related events in environmental policy, toxicology and technology. We provide indices of the cumulative amount of information on contaminants and marine mammals reached by the end of each decade, based on our own compilations from the literature and those in other recent reviews (e.g. Fossi and Marsili, 1997; O’Shea, 1999). We also illustrate progress made in the application of the scientific method to problems in the field. This overview does not consider impacts of oil on marine mammals, which has been a topic treated in depth in other sources (Geraci and St. Aubin, 1990; Loughlin, 1994).
