Breath samples collected by drone provide clues to the health of North Atlantic right whales

A new study has found that microorganisms in the breath of North Atlantic right whales contain valuable information about the animals’ health.

Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts used drones to capture the spray from blowholes of endangered species. They then analyzed the bacteria in the spray and combined that information with other data to get a clearer picture of the health of individual whales.

“This is really exciting because we’ve found another way to monitor the health of these critically endangered whales,” says lead author Caroline Miller, a research associate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The study, published this month in the Journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology,

experts say there are less than 400 North Atlantic right whales remain on the planet, with populations facing increasing threats from ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear.

WHOI researchers have collected 103 samples from 85 North Atlantic right whales in Cape Cod Bay, Mass., since they began using drone technology in 2016.

It involves flying a drone carrying a petri dish over a whale until it exhales a breath through its blowhole. Once the spray falls on the petri dish, the drone flies back to its pilot, who is aboard a nearby boat, the dish is cleaned and the sample is preserved for future study.

Although using drones to collect samples is nothing new, researchers have shown for the first time that the types of bacteria found in each whale’s breath are linked to their health.

They used previously collected high-resolution images of whales as well as an existing dataset that shows factors such as robustness, thinness, length, skin condition and the presence of whale lice.

When they combined microbial samples with this information, they found that thinner whales contained bacteria that can cause infections in mammals, while stronger whales contained bacteria associated with fatty oil-rich environments.

“Basically we’re still uncovering it and understanding what it means, but we think it could Another way to measure the health of these animals,” Miller said. “It’s like a biomarker of what’s going on with these animals and how fat or thin they are.”

Drone collection safe, easy

Miller says collecting whale breath samples by drone is a little tricky, but it’s safer and less invasive than other techniques.

Previously, researchers had to stay on a boat to collect samples and use a long pole with a petri dish attached to it.

“To get to the nose or nose of the animal, you have to get really, really close to the animal and that’s dangerous. It’s very, very stressful for the animal to try to get that close.”

With drone collection, the whales seem completely unaffected, Miller says.

“It’s like they didn’t pay attention to the drone at all. And it’s quiet and it’s stable. It’s very small and it’s a really easy way to do it.”

assistant for monitoring

Sean Brillant, a senior conservation biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Federation who has researched North Atlantic right whales, says the study is “surprising and really a new approach.”

“What a wonderful opportunity this instrument is providing to advance knowledge about this animal,” he said.

“We have a lot of difficulty contacting these animals and if they don’t want us to approach them, they overtake most of the boats we have and they go underwater and disappear.”

Brillant said many whales that have survived entanglement or ship collisions are experiencing health effects from those experiences, so studying the spray from their blowholes could help monitor them over time.

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