is profoundly hinged on the dedication and
commitment of the scientists. All season with
day after day spent on the water has yielded
just a handful of samples so far for the team.
Regardless of how few, each one is a highly
sought-after prize. Our conversation now
gets a little deeper into the science “On the first day we went out, it took just 10
minutes to get the first sample, so that was
definitely not what I expected - I thought
we would spend hours out there trying to
get this thing going. The mechanical part
worked quite well - using the drone, getting
over the whale, capturing some of the snot.
But of course there is another element to it.
We need to now find out if the amount that
we captured will give us enough DNA and
enough hormones to see that it will work.
It’s a very difficult process because it’s so
heavily diluted (with seawater) - we’re talking
about microlitres and such small amounts
here, so I did make some calculations on
the quantification, to try to quantify just how
much we actually captured. Our best sample
has about 0.07 grams of material - that’s
water plus everything else. So we’re dealing
with the smallest amounts imaginable, and
there’s only one way to deal with that and
it’s to do controls, more controls and blanks
- through the lab process you have to have
collected negative controls. We basically run
about the same amount of controls, as we do
samples.
“At the moment we have ten potential samples
(from the season), and even if only three of
them are working out, and we can get the
It takes nerves, skills and a bit of luck, but launching and retrieving
the drone by hand whilst bobbing in the wind on the open ocean is a
sight to behold - miss the catch and not only do you lose your sample,
but Tom the drone could end up in the drink and ultimately in landfill if
soaked in seawater // Photo Luke Sorensen