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Project Description

This laboratory-based study will validate blubber steroid analysis in 3 species of large whales, 2 mysticetes and 1 odontocete. The development and validation will take 2 forms, analytical and biological. The analytical validation is comprised of standard laboratory methods that are commonly used and referred to by endocrine journals as the baseline for validating immunoassays. To initiate the biological validation, humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) tissues will be analyzed along the dorsal and ventrolateral axis of the body as well as in depth of the blubber layer to determine how much variability exists with an individual whale depending on the location and depth that the sample comes from. The biological validation will continue by comparing measured concentrations between sexes, known life history stages (immature vs. mature) and reproductive classes (pregnant vs. non-pregnant) using archived tissues from humpback whales, blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) and opportunistically false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens). The validated assays will be used to analyze stress and reproductive hormones to compare physiological function relative to proximity to anthropogenic disturbances such as noise. Without extensive knowledge of an animal's physiology, such as reproductive cycles, it is difficult to discriminate between normal fluctuations in hormones and the impact that an anthropogenic disturbance may have on an animal's ability to reproduce and maintain homeostasis. This lack of data and information on external stressors,