Genetic, Endocrine, and Microbiological Assessments of Blue, Humpback and Killer Whale Health using Unoccupied Aerial Systems

Abstract

Unoccupied aerial system (UAS) technologies applied to health assessments of large whales can have positive implications for progressive management. We focused on the collection of cetacean respiratory blow samples for endocrine, DNA profiling, microbial metabarcoding, and metagenomics analyses, with the goal of improving management of large whale populations. Blow samples were collected from humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae, n = 109 samples analyzed), blue (Balaenoptera musculus, n = 21 samples analyzed), and killer whale (Orcinus orca, n = 1 sample analyzed) species, as well as the responses of the whales to the collection of their blow by UAS. Endocrine analyses were validated for 5 steroid hormones in humpback whales and 4 hormones in blue whales. For DNA profiling, we attempted to extract and amplify nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, resulting in sequencing of mtDNA haplotypes for 54% of samples, identification of sex for 39%, and individual identification by microsatellite genotyping for 17%. The DNA profiles of 2 of the blow samples from humpback whales were matched to a DNA register for this regional population. Metagenomic and microbial metabarcoding classifications found a diverse number of bacteria, eukaryotes, and viruses in humpback whale blow. Although a significant portion of classifications were found in both seawater and blow, several of the most abundant organisms were present only in blow samples, suggesting they are true members of the respiratory microbiome. A comprehensive integration of laboratory‐based approaches using noninvasive UAS collection technologies could become an important management tool for health assessments of large cetaceans, especially for species listed as endangered. The addition of individual and population‐level health assessments to currently practiced stewardship of large whales, renders them as excellent sentinels of ocean health. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.

Sex analysis in marine biological systems: insights and opportunities

“…For example, the miniaturization of tagging equipment has facilitated the expansion of sex-specific research on seabirds to include juveniles as well as adults (Fay et al 2015). The use of drones to collect blow "snot" from whales has drastically reduced the time and cost associated with the manual collection of tissue samples via biopsy crossbows (Atkinson et al 2021) while providing a better understanding of sex, health, pregnancy status, genomic structure, and microbiotic communities in individual whales (Bennett et al 2015;Keller and Willke 2019).…”

“…The use of drones to collect blow “snot” from whales has drastically reduced the time and cost associated with the manual collection of tissue samples via biopsy crossbows (Atkinson et al . 2021) while providing a better understanding of sex, health, pregnancy status, genomic structure, and microbiotic communities in individual whales (Bennett et al . 2015; Keller and Willke 2019).…”

The conservation impact of botanical drones: Documenting and collecting rare plants from vertical cliffs and other hard‐to‐reach areas

“…Scientists are now deploying uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS also called drones) to gather data from hard‐to‐reach areas including for DNA studies of whales from drone‐based respiratory blow samples (Atkinson et al., 2021), assessment of cliff‐dwelling seabird colonies (Bishop et al., 2022), and monitoring canopy infestations in palm trees (Kadethankar et al., 2021). Plants growing in hard‐to‐reach areas have also been studied using these emerging technologies including, for example, the study of water holding capacity of bromeliads in Brazil (Lehmann et al., 2022), systematic vertical transects to assess floristic abundance in China (Zhou et al., 2021), and in‐depth imaging and modelling of one specific cliff section in Italy (Strumia et al., 2020).…”

DNA from dives: Species detection of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from flukeprint eDNA

“…Sampling of dead individuals provides a unique opportunity to gather important demographic and genetic data; however, this information does not pertain to live, free‐living populations (Berube & Palsbøll, 1996; Shaw et al., 2003). Other techniques of obtaining genetic information include the collection of DNA from cetacean exhaled breath, or “blow,” which has been used to investigate respiratory bacterial communities (Acevedo‐Whitehouse et al., 2010; Apprill et al., 2017; Atkinson et al., 2021; Centelleghe et al., 2020; Raverty et al., 2017; Richard et al., 2022) and the identification of animal sex (Robinson & Nuuttila, 2020), and genetic diversity (Atkinson et al., 2021).…”