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Lyman K. Thorsteinson 1, Teresa K. Rowles 2, Paul R. Becker 3, Stephen A. Wise 4, Barbara J. Porter 4, Geoffrey Weston York 5, Brad K. Smith 6, Barbara A. Mahoney 6 1 U.S. Geological Survey, Seattle, Washington, USA, 2 National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, 3 National Institute of Standards and Technology, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, 4 National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, 5 U.S. Geological Survey, Anchorage, Alaska, USA, 6 National Marine Fisheries Service, Anchorage, Alaska, USA.
The banking of environmental specimens under cryogenic conditions for future retrospective analysis has been recognized for many years as an important part of environmental monitoring programs. Since 1987, the Alaska Marine Mammal Tissue Archival Project (AMMTAP) has been collecting tissue samples from marine mammals for archival in the National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. The project is a joint effort by the U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division (USGS\BRD), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to collect tissue samples from Alaska marine mammals and to store these samples under the best conditions so that they can be analyzed in the future for environmental contaminants. The AMMTAP is conducted as part of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. A substantial part of the sample collection is from Arctic species and, since most of the animals sampled are from Alaska Native subsistence harvests, the project requires cooperation and collaboration with numerous Alaska Native organizations and local governmental agencies. return to Alaska Contaminants and Tissue Archival Program Home |
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Introduction