Stable isotopes of captive Cetaceans (Killer Whales and Bottlenose dolphins)

There is currently a great deal of interest in using stable-isotope methods to investigate diet, trophic level and migration movement in wild cetaceans. Fundamental to the interpretation of these methods is the need to understand how diet isotopic values are reflected in consumer tissues. In this study, we investigated patterns of isotopic discrimination between diet and blood constituents of two species of cetaceans (killer whale, Orcinus orca and 19 bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncutus) fed with controlled diets during 350 days. Diet discrimination factors ( ) for plasma were estimated to 13C =2.3‰ and 1520 N =1.8‰ respectively for both species and to 13C =2.7‰ and 1521 N =0.5‰ for red blood cells (RBC). Delipidation had no significant effect on carbon and nitrogen isotopic values of blood constituents, confirming that cetacean blood no serving as reservoirs of lipids. In contrast, carbon isotopic values are higher in delipidated samples of blubber, liver and muscle of orca tissues. The mean half life for plasma was 32.9 days for killer whales and 27.2 days for bottlenose dolphin and for RBC was greater than 175 days. The potential for conflict between fisheries and cetaceans has heightened the need for trophic information about this taxa within those ecosystems. These results provide the first published stable isotope turnover rates and discrimination factors for cetaceans, which are essential if conclusions are to be drawn on issues concerning trophic structures, carbon sources and diet reconstruction.