Saving killer whale populations from a global collapse: rebuttal against Desforges et al. (2018)

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Abstract

In their Science paper, Desforges et al. (2018) address PCB pollution in killer whales, predicting a decline in calf survival and an associated collapse of killer whale populations worldwide. I refute the collapse, showing that it follows from a flawed model parametrisation. The result is not questioning contamination problems in killer whales, but only the bold prediction of global collapse.

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europepmc
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License: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0