Ahh I loved this podcast too and have been recommending to all whale and non-whale friends!

The MULTIWHALE team are looking forward to sharing our results soon! 📈📊👩‍🔬👩‍💻

Our project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and we are a collaboration between @uio.no @biovitenskap.bsky.social , #norwegianorcasurvey plus many more! 🤗🙌

(7/7)

Note that we never sample calves 🖤🤍 And always assess the body condition and behaviour of the group before sampling. Animal welfare first 🙏❤️ (6/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey

Normally the whales barely notice the sampling and quickly resume their pre-sampling behaviour. A 3cm long and 1g sample is, after all, not much for a 10m long 10 tonne animal 😆🐳 (5/7)

📷 Krisztina Balotay

The tiny sample is used for EIGHT different analyses! 🔎🧬🔬It gives valuable knowledge into diet, health, pollutant levels, genetics and more to help us understand and mitigate the multiple stressors facing the population 🇳🇴🐳 (4/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey

Every sampled whale is photo-identified 📸 So tissue analysis results can be linked to what we know about the whales from previous sightings. This also ensures we don’t sample the same whale twice in a season, and allows us to to observe the wound healing quickly! ☺️✅ (3/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey

A small dart with a mounted tip is fired at the area behind the dorsal fin of a whale. When the dart hits the whale, it bounces off and floats. We can then retrieve the dart using a net, extract the tissue from the tip, and freeze it immediately on board ❄️🧪 (2/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey