Otter News Archive

At a time when Canada has received low marks for its efforts to clean up the environment and support anti-global warming moves, two U of T faculty members and researchers are being recognized internationally for their enthusiastic and innovative contributions towards the promotion of biodiversity and environmentalism.

Professor Carin Wittnich of surgery and physiology and Professor Michael Belanger of surgery, who runs her research program, have been invited to become affiliate members of the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Species Survival Commission (SSC)—Otter Specialist Group (OSG) for their research on otters conducted as volunteers through the Oceanographic Environmental Research Society (OERS). They are currently two of only three Canadian members.

SSC is a global, science-based network of thousands of volunteer experts, working together towards “a world that values and conserves present levels of biodiversity.” The commission’s major role is to provide information to the conservation union on the conservation of species and their inherent value. The OSG provides leadership in the conservation of all otter species.

With grant funding from OERS Wittnich and Belanger have been tracking pollution levels in otters and their food sources to get a clearer picture of what is happening in the environment in which humans live. Mercury pollution they found in fish led them to investigate pollutants in animals higher up the food chain. Of all the heavy metals being disposed of in the environment, mercury is the second leading cause of death in people after lead.

“We wanted to see what the environment was like in terms of pollutants and the way to investigate that is to look at animals near the top of the food chain,” said Belanger.

Belanger added that the last study of this kind in Canada was done in Ontario in 1979.

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