Our new research shows that “forever chemicals” (PFAS) have reached every corner of the ocean, contaminating a far wider range of whales and dolphins than expected, even deep-diving species far from human activity. Surprisingly, habitat had little influence on exposure while age and sex mattered more. These findings reveal PFAS are deeply embedded in marine food webs, raising urgent concerns for ocean health and the species that depend on it, including us.

For over 3.5 billion years, life on Earth has evolved through a balance of species emergence and extinction. But when extinctions outpace the formation of new species, mass extinction events occur. Earth has experienced five such events since the Cambrian period. Today, driven by human activity (including habitat loss, pollution, and climate change) species are disappearing at rates up to 10,000 times higher than normal, signalling that a sixth mass extinction may already be