C-2002: Expanding environmental specimen bank applications – Banking for marine mammal health research

Abstract

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began banking specimens for contaminant trend monitoring in 1979. Based on these initial collections, NIST protocols for collection, processing, and banking have been primarily for environmental contaminant analysis. In 2010, NIST consolidated all banking operations to the Marine Environmental Specimen Bank (Marine ESB) at the Hollings Marine Laboratory, Charleston, SC. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program began the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank (NMMTB) in response to a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates) mortality event where a lack of banked specimens left questions concerning unusually high environmental contaminants unanswered. The NMMTB was designed as a resource of tissue samples for chemical analysis to determine exposure to contaminants and retrospective research on exposure history of populations to emerging contaminants. Maintained by NIST, the NMMTB tissues are collected and banked within the Marine ESB from fresh-stranded marine mammals, animals taken incidentally in fishing operations, and from Native Americans for subsistence. In 2002, NIST began collaborating with researchers to assess the health of bottlenose dolphins. These studies involve the capture and release of live animals during which health measurements and samples are collected. This health assessment and banking approach is being expanded to other marine mammal species in the US, and has been used in studies on dolphins for natural resources damage assessment in response to the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The Marine ESB has become a chain-of-custody biorepository for samples collected as a part of the spill. NIST is working with NOAA and its collaborating partners to expand the scope of the specimen bank and develop it as a resource of samples for animal health research. This expansion will emphasize the banking of specimens for wildlife disease studies, exposure to biotoxins, and developing health biomarkers.