Meeting Abstract

23.4  Friday, Jan. 4  Respiratory vapor sampling for endocrine studies of free-swimming baleen whales HUNT, K.E.*; ROLLAND, R.; KRAUS, S.; New England Aquarium, Boston MA; New England Aquarium, Boston MA; New England Aquarium, Boston MA tweedoo@gmail.com

Physiological studies of baleen whales have been severely hampered by the inability to capture and sample living animals. Recent developments in noninvasive sampling methodology, including fecal sampling and blow sampling, have improved this picture. Here we focus on blow sampling (sampling of respiratory vapor) and its potential application for endocrine studies of free-swimming baleen whales. We present data from a preliminary study on a well-known population of North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW, Eubalaena glacialis) in the Bay of Fundy. Our initial questions were (1) whether blow sampling is feasible for routine use at sea, and (2) whether any steroid or thyroid hormones are detectable in NARW blow samples using standard immunoassay techniques. Using a pole-sampling method, we collected 55 blow samples from individually known NARW during 7 days at sea in 2011. In good conditions, sampling rate ranged between 10-22 samples per day, and most samples were large enough to test for multiple analytes. Using RIA and EIA methods, we detected cortisol, progesterone, testosterone, estrogens, and thyroid hormones in NARW blow. Parallelism validations were successful. Thus, it appears that most hormones that are present in whale blood are also present in whale blow. Our next goal is to develop methodology for quantifying hormone concentration relative to a control substance that is secreted at constant rate in lung fluid, in order to control for variable water content. Additional benefits of this technique are that individual animals can be sampled repeatedly, and the sampling is entirely noninvasive. Though many validations remain to be done, blow sampling holds considerable promise for opening the black box of baleen whale physiology.