When we perform biopsies, we take pictures so we'll know which animal we've biopsied and whether it's a male or a female. In a biopsy we get a sample of skin and fat tissue. The skin tells us the animal's sex, and with further analysis we can determine their direct descendants: who's the mother, who's the father. Biopsies also reveal traces of pollutants and
their food sources. When we were thinking of performing biopsies and when we actually started doing them, we had serious concerns about whether it was an acceptable practice, ethically speaking. How would the animals react? Was there a risk we would injure them? We checked the available material and read up on what other people were
doing. We came to the conclusion it was okay to proceed. Most other teams, when they perform biopsies, also monitor the animals overall reactions as well as their reactions to the biopsy itself. It's quite interesting what we found with belugas. Whether the dart hits or misses the whales, sometimes they'll whip their tails then they'll all dive at once. It's not the
sample we're taking that makes them react; it's more the sound of the dart when it's released that they seem to react to. With the larger rorquals, only about a third of them have no reaction at all, whereas the other two thirds react a little, some whales a bit more. By reaction I mean some won't surface again, some will pick up speed, while some will just sink.
Among the stronger reactions we've noted, there are those who stick a bit of tail out of water or they turn over. Those signs seem to signify that we've really disturbed them. But an hour later, we can just as easily approach them again; they don't seem to be avoiding us. The whales we've performed biopsies on in an area in particular don't shun the area after
they've been biopsied there.