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Polar bears are the only known predators of human flesh.
It wasn't exactly the fact University of Southern Maine toxicologist
Sandy Wise was looking for when she took a research trip to
Barrow, Alaska, in September 2002. But when her guide, a scientist
from the Department of Wildlife Management, picked her up
at the airport covered in polar bear blood, Wise figured she
had stepped into terra incognita.
"They had just had to kill a polar bear that came into town,"
says Wise. "He told me, 'You don't want to go out walking
unless you have a shotgun with you.' Uh, I don't actually
know how to operate a gun."
Wise was there to collect tissue samples from bowhead whales
-- endangered northern Alaskan whales which are subsistence
hunted locally by Native Alaskans. The Natives have federal
authorization to continue limited whale hunting, with strike
quotas determined, in part, by the International Whaling Commission.
They had agreed to give her samples from their hunt.
Wise's research, which is partly funded by three grants from
the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration,
examines the effects of toxic metals on several species of
marine mammals -- including bowhead whales. The work is part
of a major research initiative by her husband and principal
investigator, USM Associate Professor John Wise, to develop
a National Marine Mammal Cell Line Library at USM. The cell
repository will allow other scientists around the world to
do research on endangered marine mammals without harming or
interfering with living animals.
This information is critical if scientists are to discover
the cause of major die-offs and strandings among some whale
species, and may also lead to comparative studies between
marine mammals and humans. It's the kind of field work to
make a scientist drool -- or learn to load a shotgun.
As long, gray days blended into Arctic nights, Sandy Wise
hung around several Native whaling stations as tired crews
hauled fresh bowhead kills onto shore. Science, sociology,
and diplomacy blended, as she awaited her turn to gather samples
of skin and organs from the 30-odd foot whales. "There is
a traditional system of how they butcher the animal and how
they distribute the parts to various people connected with
the hunt," notes Wise. "Some of the crews are very cooperative,
some aren't as interactive. You don't want to overstep your
boundaries."
As a non-Native, Sandy Wise was federally authorized to receive
but not harvest the tissue herself, but stood nearby with
her kit, ready to receive, as samples of cooked blubber, or
maktak, were passed around to all dockside. Once the tissue
samples were taken to labs, they would be used for two distinct
purposes: one, to measure the saturation of metals in various
parts of the animal. Secondly, to create additional cell lines
through genetic manipulation, which researchers can then use
to better study and understand the species.
The Arctic has some of the most contaminated water on the
planet, explains Wise. "Essentially, all of the world's pollution
ends up there -- by ocean current and wind." Because the Natives
subsist on the animals -- whether whales, seals, or caribou
-- concern has intensified that they may be at risk for high
exposure to contaminants, such as PCBs and metals. "You see
a lot of reproductive problems, developmental problems," notes
Wise. "I think the Natives want to work with us to help themselves
as well as to help the whales, because they live off them."
Oddly, bowheads appear unaffected by the potentially carcinogenic
effects of their environment. "Bowheads can live up to 200
years. They don't seem to get any cancer," says Wise. "When
we have exposed their cells to chromium, for instance, they
absorb a lot but they're more resistant to its toxic effect.
We're curious to see if there are some innate protective mechanisms
in their cells that prevent them from developing mutations
which lead to cancers." Ultimately, that information may help
scientists better understand cancer cells and the genetic
mechanisms that fight mutation.
While still classified as endangered, the northern Alaskan
bowhead population has rebounded and is estimated to encompass
10,000 animals. Its eastern cousin -- the northern Atlantic
right whale -- is not so lucky. Only about 350 right whales
are thought to survive, says Wise. Scientists are unclear
why they aren't rebounding faster -- in spite of total bans
on hunting. USM researchers hope that genetic information
from bowhead cell lines can be used to shed light on the right
whale as well.
USM's Wise Laboratory currently is the only lab in the country
with such broad permission to do whale tissue sampling, says
John Wise. "Genetic production of cell lines is critical.
These animals are too big to bring into the lab, they are
federally protected and many are endangered. What we're doing
is maintaining their cells in perpetuity and making them available
to other scientists in the field."
For Sandy Wise, it definitely means more trips to Barrow
with her lab associate Amie Holmes. "It's kind of rustic,"
she says with characteristic understatement. Photographs from
her latest trip reveal a dismal, muddy landscape with scrappy
settlements and no trees. The two scientists live in a sparse
research station with bunk beds and rough accommodations.
"It's an adventure, but it's a challenging place to be," she
says. "The first whale hunt was amazing for me. It was foggy
out and to see this huge animal coming in was surreal. You're
in a completely different world."
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