Date Time Finding best way to a whale’s diet through its skin Skin, not blubber is the most effective way of revealing migrating whales’ diet, according to new Griffith University research. Assessing the whales’ blubber and skin tissues, the Southern Ocean Persistent Organic Pollutants Program team from the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security together with collaborators at the Australian Rivers Institute, concluded skin was the more suitable tissue for dietary assessment of humpback whales, but fats in the skin still interfered with the chemical signal. “Blubber and skin samples taken with dart gun from whales migrating from Antarctica are often used to discover the make-up of their diet in the Southern Ocean, and how it’s changing over time,” said PhD candidate Jasmin Gross.