History of whaling in South Georgia and its impact revealed with DNA samples

Thursday, May 22nd 2014 - 12:41 UTC

Full article 5 comments

Bones that have littered the beaches of South Georgia for a hundred years since the animals were killed by whalers are now being used to establish what species of whale were being hunted, reports South Georgia’s April Newsletter. Read full article

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ilsen
Are these bones redolent of Argentine ambition in the area?
May 23rd, 2014 - 12:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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Marcos Alejandro
South Georgia (Argentina) MercoP news, I can't wait for John N. update.
May 23rd, 2014 - 01:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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ilsen
Looks like Cristina expropriated all the blubber for her Botox treatments leaving only a few bones for her people to chew on. (analogy - she's not allowed on a BoT).
May 23rd, 2014 - 03:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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GeoffWard2
ERROR IN MERCOPRESS STORY

The study represents ‘the most comprehensive investigation of historic genetic diversity in whales from around the Antarctic region prior to commercial whaling’.

Scientists collected samples from 281 whale bones.
They successfully extracted DNA from *82%* of the samples. 50 samples were unable to be extracted.

158 were humpback whales,
51 were fin whales,
18 blue whales,
2 sei whales, and
1 southern right whale,
1 elephant seal.

DNA was extracted from 231 samples (= individual whales?), so the other 50 samples must have been ‘non-genetic’, anatomical identifications, or they did not contribute to the study.

A nice piece of forensic ecology, but very limited in its scope.
May 23rd, 2014 - 04:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Falkland Islands
@2 piss off nurd.
May 24th, 2014 - 12:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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