Scientists Say Radiation Leaving Whales Sunburned

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER Associated Press
LONDON November 10, 2010 (AP)

Scientists say some whale species off the Mexican coast are showing signs of severe sunburn that may be caused by the damaged ozone layer's decreased ability to block ultraviolet radiation.

The seagoing mammals would be particularly vulnerable to the sun damage in part because they need to spend extended periods of time on the ocean's surface to breathe, socialize, and feed their young. Since they don't have fur or feathers, that effectively means they sunbathe naked.
As Laura Martinez-Levasseur, the study's lead author, put it: "Humans can put on clothes or sunglasses — whales can't."

Martinez-Levasseur, who works at Zoological Society of London, spent three years studying whales in the Gulf of California, the teeming body of water which separates Baja California from the Mexican mainland.

Photographs were taken of the whales to chart any visible damage, and small samples — taken with a crossbow-fired dart — were collected to examine the state of their skin cells.