Tasiilaq<\/a>. Indigenous communities still harvest a couple of killer whales each year, and we collaborate with them to collect a couple of samples for our research. It was the first time I saw such a big chunk of killer whale blubber.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe blubber chunk was about 5 cm (2 in) deep. It makes you realize how much fat these whales need to stay warm. I could not take my eyes off it. The sample belonged to a 6m-long subadult killer whale. Now that we have successfully extracted the contaminants from the samples, I need to prepare for the next step. I will have to run this analysis on 59 killer whale samples from the Norwegian Arctic and five killer whales from Saint-Pierre & Miquelon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wish me luck, and stay tuned for more news on my research!<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne batch of twelve extractions takes two days \u2014 Credit: Ana\u00efs Remili<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have gone back to the lab a couple of times in the last few months, mainly to extract fatty acids from potential prey items of Icelandic and Norwegian killer whales. It has been a lot of fun, but I missed killer whale blubber. Back in December 2021, I extracted and quantified fatty acids in …<\/p>\n
Back to the lab, with killer whale blubber<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBack to the lab, with killer whale blubber<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n