Join us for Cetacean Sessions #6 on Thursday, June 10th at 4:00 pm PT. In this session we will take a closer look at the high PCB levels in different populations of killer whales in the northern North Atlantic. Anaïs Remili will discuss results from her paper “Individual prey specialization drives PCB levels in Icelandic killer whales” recently published in Environmental Science and Technology and Clare Andvik will provide an overview of results from her latest papers “High levels of legacy and emerging contaminants in killer whales (Orcinus orca) from Norway, 2015 to 2017” published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and “Preying on seals pushes killer whales from Norway above pollution effects thresholds” published in Scientific Reports. Presentation and discussion will be followed by live Q&A with the audience.

For viewing/participating we recommend earbuds/headphones and the use of Chrome or Firefox.

Cetacean Sessions is a bi-weekly webinar series where we discuss impactful recently published scientific research on cetaceans with those conducting it around the world. Cetacean Sessions is informal, educational, interactive and geared towards those working with or interested in cetaceans. You can register for sessions and follow our channel for free with no account creation necessary.

Anaïs Remili is a PhD candidate at McGill University. Her work focuses on the impact of feeding ecology variation on contaminants (persistent organic pollutants) levels in North Atlantic killer whales. She recently published the results from a study on contaminants in Icelandic killer whales in Environmental Science and Technology. The team found that the whales with a mixed diet, including marine mammals and fish, had contaminant concentrations above all known thresholds for risk effects and potentially faced health risks from their contaminant exposure. They also found that the fish eaters, in contrast, had safer contaminant levels. On top of her research on North Atlantic killer whales, Anaïs is the founder of Whale Scientists, a science communication website about marine mammals and early career whale scientists.

Clare Andvik is a PhD Candidate at the University of Oslo. She has previously researched the levels of both old and new environmental pollutants in Norwegian killer whales: looking at how the levels vary with the diet of the whales, and how they can be transferred from mother to calf. As a part of her PhD, she will now look at how pollution, in conjunction with other, multiple, stressors, will impact Norwegian killer whales at both an individual and population level.

Bay Cetology enables conservation and understanding of cetacean populations that are data deficient or threatened by climate change and human development. Our marine biologists and research technicians use various expertise to conduct field studies, analyze data, and communicate findings. Bay Cetology was founded by Jared Towers in 2017 and is based out of Alert Bay (Home of the Killer Whale) in the unceded traditional territory of the ‘Namgis First Nation, British Columbia, Canada. See more about our previous work and current projects at https://baycetology.org

Cetacean Session #6