Current Levels of Organochlorine Pesticides in Marine Ecosystems of the Russian Far Eastern Seas

Abstract

This review provides information on major organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), which were applied in agriculture worldwide in the 1940s–1960s and are still in use in some developing countries (such as India and China). Patterns of their distribution in the environment, toxicity, metabolism, and degradation are described. Their distribution over the components of ecosystems in different regions of the World Ocean, including the Far Eastern seas of Russia (the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Bering Sea), is characterized over the period of 2000–2016. In the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, the OCP content of marine organisms is lower than that in other regions of the World Ocean, in particular, in the Sea of Japan. Results show that a pesticide “background” has formed on the planet. The OCP concentrations in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea can be considered a background level, while the Sea of Japan is exposed to contamination from countries using these substances in agriculture.