For Ana茂s Remili, a PhD candidate researching the impacts of environmental contaminants on killer whales, there was at least one upside to last year鈥檚 pandemic shutdown. She and a friend found time to create a science communications website they had long dreamt about.
is designed to help people learn about marine mammals and to share helpful information with other early-career researchers. Since its launch in May 2020, the site has attracted over 200,000 visits. Young scientists around the world have signed up as contributors.
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The site鈥檚 visibility has also enabled Remili to connect with a wider audience. When a humpback whale captured media attention by wandering up the Saint Lawrence River to Montreal last year鈥攎uch farther from the ocean than whales usually travel鈥擱emili helped explain the phenomenon through media interviews and magazine.
Orcas鈥� shifting diets
Remili鈥檚 doctoral work focuses on killer whales鈥攁lso known as orcas鈥攊n the North Atlantic. In March, she was lead author on an article in showing that some Icelandic orcas have concentrations of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in their blubber that surpass all known thresholds for risks of health effects.
PCBs are industrial chemicals that were banned from production decades ago, after they were found to affect the health of both humans and wildlife. But because they degrade very slowly after being released into the environment, they are still ubiquitous and accumulate in the bodies of marine mammals. And since killer whales are at the top of the marine food chain, they are among the most contaminated animals on the planet.
Icelandic orcas mainly eat fish, but some 鈥減ods鈥濃�攕mall groups that travel together鈥攁ppear to have 鈥渁djusted their dietary strategies鈥� by learning to prey on seals as well as fish, Remili explains. Her study, authored with Prof. Melissa McKinney of the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, determined that the orcas with mixed diets have up to nine-times-higher levels of PCBs鈥攆ar more than previous research had suggested.
In the next phase of her research, Ana茂s is looking at fatty acid 鈥渟ignatures鈥� in the blubber of killer whales throughout the North Atlantic, to get an indication of the composition of marine-mammal and fish prey in their diets.
鈥淭his study reveals a previously overlooked, but critically important, aspect of killer whales' remarkably high exposures to these substances; that is, differences in prey specialization between individuals within just a single population can lead to markedly different levels of contaminants,鈥� says Prof. McKinney, who holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Ecological Change and Environmental Stressors. 鈥淲hat this means is that we must take individual ecology into consideration to really understand the population-level threats posed by environmental contaminants to these sensitive marine mammals.鈥�
Childhood fascination leads to global journey
Remili, who grew up in the French Alps, became fascinated with whales as a kid. 鈥淚t might have started with watching films like ,鈥� she says. 鈥淓very family trip that we took that brought us close to the sea, I was so excited and I just wanted to go see dolphins and whales.鈥�
After a year as a high school exchange student in Michigan, she completed an undergraduate degree in biodiversity in France and did a summer internship with a foundation in Italy, helping with research on marine mammals in the Mediterranean.
She went on to earn a Master鈥檚 degree in through Europe鈥檚 Erasmus Mundus program, with coursework at universities in Belgium, Bordeaux and the Basque country of Spain.
In Spain, she was introduced to 鈥渆cotoxicology鈥濃�攖he study of the effects of toxic substances in ecosystems. 鈥淚 fell in love with the idea of researching pollutants and toxicology,鈥� Remili says. 鈥淚 decided that鈥檚 what I wanted to focus on.鈥�
She also did a summer internship with a University of Louisville lab studying the effect of chromium on the cells of humpback whales; that stint included a few weeks collecting whale biopsy samples in the Gulf of Maine.
Back at l鈥橴niversit茅 de Li猫ge in Belgium, one of her professors suggested using blubber samples from Antarctica to do a thesis on pollutants in humpback whales of the southern hemisphere. She did so, and completed her Master鈥檚 thesis after a year in Belgium, shuttling to Antwerp to conduct some of the analyses in a specialized lab there.
Remili won the award for best thesis in her program, as well as ranking first based on coursework.
A 平特五不中 connection
Ana茂s hoped to continue working on whale ecotoxicology in a PhD program. But very few labs in the world focus on that, so finding the right opportunity presented a challenge. She reached out to postdoctoral researcher Jean-Pierre Desforges, whom she had met in Denmark. He connected her with Prof. McKinney, who had recently been hired at 平特五不中 and was looking for a PhD student.
鈥淚 thought this was really a one-time opportunity, and I knew it was going to be with contaminants and top predators,鈥� Remili recalls. 鈥淲hen I found out I would be working on contaminants in North Atlantic killer whales I was over-the-moon excited. It was my dream project.鈥�
She scrambled to get her study permit, just in time to move to Montreal and start at 平特五不中 in January 2019.
Early on, McKinney suggested that Remili also collaborate with Robert Letcher at who had been McKinney鈥檚 own PhD advisor. Letcher, a well-known specialist in the field, is now co-supervising Remili鈥檚 work. He and Desforges, now a postdoctoral fellow at 平特五不中, were co-authors on the recent paper by Remili and McKinney on Icelandic orcas.
Communicating science, in two languages
Like many other young scientists, Remili has discovered that sharing knowledge with the public is not only rewarding in its own right鈥攊t also helps researchers think hard about why their work matters to people other than specialists in their field.
Soon after coming to 平特五不中, Ana茂s participated in a workshop for young researchers at the Macdonald campus, with 平特五不中 communications officers providing tips on how to make scientific papers accessible to a general audience.
Remili tried her hand at a science popularization contest, sponsored by the Institut Nordique du Qu茅bec, where grad students present their Arctic research project in five minutes. She won the Quebec contest (en fran莽ais) and went on to win the international final of the competition (in English) at the in Reykjavik, Iceland. 鈥淭hat really started my scientific communication journey,鈥� she says.
With the support of the interuniversity , she also won a Fonds de Recherche du Qu茅bec grant for science communication, to fund a documentary about her orca research in Iceland. Filming was planned for this summer; but with pandemic travel restrictions still in effect, 鈥渋t looks like the timetable has been pushed back a bit,鈥� she says.
An 鈥榓mazing鈥� city
While she looks forward to traveling again, Remili is happy to be studying here. 鈥淢ontreal is amazing,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the best cities I鈥檝e lived in鈥攁nd I鈥檝e lived in a lot of cities.鈥�
Remili鈥檚 high school exchange program in Michigan enabled her to become flawlessly bilingual, which 鈥渙pened a lot of doors鈥� for her. Montreal offers similar possibilities for international students, she notes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great opportunity to learn or practice French as a second language.鈥�
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