Samples
We collected blubber samples post-mortem from two short-finned pilot whales, live-stranded in North Carolina, USA. Both carcasses were in fresh-dead condition (Code 1, i.e., meaning stranded alive then died or euthanized) when samples were collected. One sample came from an adult male (ID: RJM009), 480 cm in length, that stranded in 2009, hereafter referred to as the ‘male sample’. The ‘female sample’ was obtained from a pregnant adult female (ID: RT48), 352 cm in length, that stranded in 2005.