A Wealth of Data in Whale Breath

A WEALTH OF DATA IN WHALE BREATH NEWS COURTESY : On her trainer's command, an alabaster-skinned beluga whale named Naku placed her chin on the deck of her outdoor pool and exhaled several times, emitting a hollow "chuff" sound with each breath. The vapor rose into a petri dish a researcher held over her blowhole.Those tiny drops contain a wealth of information, it turns out. Researchers at Mystic Aquarium and elsewhere are learning how to use the breath, or "blow," of whales and dolphins to extract and measure hormones, , DNA and the byproducts of metabolism.Back at the lab, the team found a suite of hormones that may indicate the animals' sex, maturity and reproductive status -- along with cortisol, a hormone that tends to rise in conditions of stress and is considered a critical measure of an animal population's health.In a paper set for publication this month in Marine Mammal Science, team reports that a simple, portable, low-cost test can detect hormones in blow, which should open the field to any curious whale scientist.Plenty of work remains. But Ari Friedlaender, a Duke University marine-mammal ecologist not involved in the studies, had nothing but praise for the new line of research. "The door is open for this work to be done in a lot of different places, on a lot of different populations," he said.Thanks for the Author Rebecca kessler
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