Space use by marine mammals in Svalbard and potential dietary changes due to climate change

In this project we will instrument various marine mammals in Svalbard with satellite transmitters to study their general space use and movement patterns. Tissue will also be collected from these animals to study their diets and potential changes in these from previous published data due to climate change. Ringed seals (N=10), harbour seals (N=10) and white whales (N=10) will be live captured and handled onshore or at the beach, where tags will be deployed in a traditional fashion (glued to the fur of seals, and attached with nylon pins to the dorsal ridge of white whales). Blood and blubber samples will be collected to study diet using stable isotope techniques from blood, skin and whiskers (from seals) and fatty acid analyses of blubber. In addition satellite tags will be deployed on blue whales (N=10), fin whales (N=10), minke whales (N=10) and bowhead whales (N=20) in a standard fashion which for these species means deployed on distance with an airgun. From these animals skin and blubber plugs will be collected with a crossbow with a dart with a small special biopsy tool at the end. No blood samples will be available from these animals. In addition we will want blubber biopsies from humpback whales (N=10) for diet studies. These data will give us a unique insight into how these various species share the marine habitat in Svalbard and how space use and influx of new prey species due to influx of warmer Atlantic water may have effected these top predators.
Based on previous experience we expect no negative effects of these tagging and sampling regimes. The various tags are very small compared to the size of the animals that will carry them and the number of animals involved should preferable have been higher, but are restricted due to high cost of tags