(Wiirsig and Wiirsig 1977). Assuming that the 

 animals left Captiva Pass at about 1200 h on July 

 22. and that they travelled in a straight line, they 

 had to travel about 80 km/day to reach 

 Loggerhead Key at 1300 h on 25 July. When these 

 animals were escorted away from Loggerhead Key 

 on 27 July, they apparently headed northeast 

 (Schimpft"''*). The dead animals we found on Cape 

 Sable were too decomposed to tell if they were the 

 Captiva-Tortugas animals. Three large black 

 whales were seen by a National Park Service pilot 

 several kilometers east of the Dry Tortugas when 

 the other animals were stranded. These may be 

 the first three animals found floating off Cape 

 Sable on 2 August by Park Service personnel, but 

 the evidence is only circumstantial. 



The sequence of strandings described herein 

 roughly parallels a series of pilot whale, 

 Globicephala macrorhynchus , strandings that oc- 

 curred in the same vicinity on 19-20 August 1971 

 (Fehring and Wells 1976). Forty-four pilot whales 

 stranded on Manasota Key and on Gasparilla Is- 

 land a few kilometers to the south (Figure 1). On 

 25 August 1971, 12 or 13 pilot whales were found 

 stranded on the Marquesas Keys east of Key West 

 (Figure 1). At least one of these was positively 

 identified to be from the previous stranding. 



Fehring and Wells (1976) reported that the pilot 

 whales observed stranding on Gasparilla Island 

 made "a deliberate shoreward movement" as op- 

 posed to "disoriented panic." Eugene Shinn (see 

 footnote 5) unknowingly photographed the false 

 killer whales minutes before they beached on 

 Loggerhead Key while taking aerial photographs 

 of the reef formations. The photographs show two 

 close-knit pods of whales heading towards the 

 beach. Fehring and Wells also reported that the 

 behavior of the stranded animals changed after 

 the two largest pilot whales were towed offshore 

 and held there with ropes around their caudal 

 peduncles. The remainder of the animals then 

 showed less tendency to return to shore when 

 pushed off. Several of the larger Loggerhead Key 

 whales were forced offshore (headfirst, without 

 ropes around their tails) in hope that the others 

 would follow. The animals herded offshore re- 

 turned to the beach when released. The operation 

 was only successful when all of the animals were 

 forced offshore simultaneously and herded to 



"Robert Schimpff, Department of Pathology, College of 

 Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, pers 

 commun. 1977. 



176 



deeper water, using swimmers and two boats. 

 While on the Loggerhead Key beach, the whales 

 were docile, as Fehring and Wells (1976) reported 

 for the pilot whales. Coast Guard personnel who 

 followed the animals offshore reported that the 

 herd split into two groups (one of 17-18 and one of 

 10 or 11 animals) (Schimpff see footnote 14). 



Conclusions 



From the veterinary medical standpoint, we 

 would doubt the ability of those animals that were 

 necropsied to function normally with the heavy 

 parasite load in the pterygoid sinus complexes. 

 The benefits of forcing live stranded animals back 

 out to sea must be carefully weighed against the 

 benefits of bringing them into captivity, where 

 they can be observed closely and thoroughly ne- 

 cropsied should death occur. If stranded whales are 

 returned to sea, they should be given permanent, 

 individual identification marks (e.g., freeze 

 brands) and, ideally, outfitted for radio tracking. 



Acknowledgments 



The data presented in this paper could not have 

 been collected without the generous assistance of 

 many organizations and individuals, including 

 the Florida Marine Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. 

 National Park Service, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, Wometco Miami Seaquarium, Gary 

 Davis, Gary Hendrix, Deke Buesse, Ralph Miele, 

 John Reynolds, and others. Material from the four 

 captive animals at Sea World was examined as 

 follows: ovaries - Richard J. Harrison; parasites - 

 Robin M. Overstreet; histopathology - Armed 

 Forces Institute of Pathology. Gordon Hubbell 

 kindly provided the information on the 1972 

 stranding. Donald Forrester, Robert Schimpff, 

 and Nicholas Hall commented on an early draft of 

 this paper. William F. Perrin, James G. Mead, and 

 Edward D. Houde provided useful criticisms on a 

 later draft. 



Literature Cited 



ASH, C. E. 



1952. The body weights of whales. [In Engl, and Norw.] 

 Nor. Hvalfangst-Tidende 41:364-374. 



1953. Weights of Antarctic humpback whales. Nor. 

 Hvalfangst-Tidende 42:387-391. 



BEAUCHAMP, J. J., AND J. S. OLrfON. 



1973. Corrections for bias in regression estimates after 

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