How do you give a whale a health checkup? You can’t ask it to say “ahh” while you take a swab of spit. But scientists have been collecting respiratory droplets from North Atlantic right whales – using petri-dish-carrying drones flying above their blowholes.
Carolyn Miller is a research associate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a lead author of a new study that compiles eight years of sampling on 85 North Atlantic right whales.
“Imagine you breathe against a cold glass and all those droplets form,” Miller explained. “That’s exactly what we’re picking up. And so, that contains the microbiomes that are in the breath of the whale.”
Miller said the study shows respiratory microbiomes reflect whale health.
“We discovered that the different types of bacteria in the breath of whales are linked to their health. And this is really exciting because we may have found another way to conduct health checkups on these critically endangered animals.”
Miller says the right whale population endures multiple stressors, including vessel strikes, fishing gear entanglements, noise, and a changing ocean environment that affects their food source.
“The combination of these multiple stressors is affecting their health and their ability to recover as a population,” she said. “So once we understand the impact of these multiple stressors on health of the whales, we can come up with meaningful ways and effective ways to inform policy to ensure their conservation.”
Scientists estimate there are currently 384 North Atlantic right whales in existence.
Miller added that this work builds on decades of studies on the North Atlantic right whale population.
“The only way this study could have been done,” Miller said, “and the only way a lot of studies on this population can be done, are through the long-term databases that many people and organizations have contributed to. So, we know so much about their reproduction, and age, and sex, and sighting histories that enable these types of studies.”
While Miller’s work focuses on respiratory microbiomes, she said scientists at New England Aquarium are using the same sampling technique to study the whales’ stress and reproductive hormones.
