Skin samples from 139 animals, encompassing 12 species, have already been collected in collaboration with marine mammal scientists. These samples include skin biopsies from free-ranging animals from offshore Hawaii, field-captured and released animals from coastal Massachusetts and stranded and by-caught animals, primarily from Cape Cod. Samples are from the following species are currently stored in my lab at -80C: short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), Atlantic white-sided dolphin (Lagenorphynchus acutus), rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates), pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata), harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), melon headed whale (Peponocephala electra), minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), and grey seal (Halichoerus grypus). Additionally, skin samples have been committed to me from 3 other species: fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) from offshore Massachusettes, and free-ranging beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from Alaska. The skin samples were obtained from free-ranging, beach stranded, or recently deceased animals. The majority of the free-ranging animals were observed to be in apparently good health condition, while those stranded on the beach (samples obtained from both live and dead animals) are considered to be health-compromised.