I only have a moment to do a biopsy. Just before a whale dives, its back is arched...this is when I shoot. From around 30 metres away, I fire a dart into the flank of the whale.
Back in the laboratory, I use DNA from the sample to sex and identify individuals. By combining my data with other sets collected by scientists over the past 34 years, we have been able to identify more than 6,500 individual humpbacks from the North Atlantic.
We can also use our data to estimate the proportions of each breeding population in Iceland and in other feeding grounds, which will help with management and conservation efforts.
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