Lab Rats Aren't Just for Study...

It's been really swell being back at the DFO. I've learned a lot and I've been having fun and it's been great working with old and new friends.

So I'm going to share my lab work with all of you!

Part One: Beluga

I was helping TM with her beluga project. She's looking at whether belugas from different communities are being stressed out or not. So she had me taking little bits of blubber from larger samples of blubber to freeze dry, crush up and analyze. Pretty simple stuff: cut off a bit of blubber, weigh it, but it in a vial and stick it in the freezer. Repeat. It's fatty, greasy work put pretty fun.

Part Two: Bowhead


MC is doing some totally awesome project connecting all the major whale species in the arctic food web, but his primarily looking at killer whales. He took bowhead baleen and drilled into it at 2 cm intervals. He collected the drillings, and then I help weigh out 1 mg samples of each drilling.

This one was tricky. 1 mg is a really small amount, so I was working under a magnifying glass most of the time. And there wasn't a lot of ways to label a really small amount of baleen drilling, so if any mistake made in mixing up samples, you had to start over again.

Part Three: Seals


This has been a lot of fun! I've been taking the lower jaws of arctic seals (ringed, bearded and harbour) and boiling them. It might have put me off watching my grandmother make chicken soup.

Once the jaws are nice and boiled, I take them out, remove all the skin, tissue and occasionally the tongue (those are the best ones!). Then I get out the pliers and pull some teeth!

Who needs to take the DCAT when you can pull seal teeth without a dentistry degree?

The teeth are sent to a lab that takes thin shavings, stick them on a slide and then count the calcium rings to figure out their age.

It's been really gross, totally stinky and completely awesome. My back is aching, my hands are killing me and I've almost impaled my fingers on a canine more than one time. But it's been stimulating work and not monotonous at all.

So that's what I've been up to so far. There might be more, or I might be out of here again! Who knows what the future has in store...

Speak Loud!