Cancer in sea lions?

Last night, one of my coworkers was joking about his wife's job. She studies ant socialization at ASU. He said if she were trying to cure cancer, maybe more people would support the study. So I interjected something about "ant cancer," which after some truly strange debate, we decided wasn't real.

But the reality is that other mammals do get cancer. We know that humans get cancer, and many have seen tumors on dogs and cats. How about sea lions? Yes, it is apparently a huge problem for sea lions, according to a New York Times article. Researchers also found cancer in about 18 percent of beluga whales that died in the St. Lawrence River estuary. For the whales, scientists linked the tumors to pollution, which may also be the cause for the sea lions. Unfortunately, it isn't clear what is causing the cancers, and because of a lack of prior knowledge of the issue, researchers can't determine whether there is an increase in sea lion cancer.

We know that the chemicals we put into the ground cause cancer in humans. I never thought before that we may also be causing cancer in sea animals.