was present. By the end of the 3 week 

 postoperative period, normal healing 

 was considered well underway (Figure 

 2). and there was. by then, no drainage 

 from any of the suture sites, though 

 the sutures were still freely movable. 

 One week before the scheduled re- 

 lease, the instrument package saddle 

 was mounted onto the sutures to allow 

 the animal time to adjust to it before 

 adding the somewhat heavier (approxi- 

 mately 6 kg) instrument package itself. 

 The animal occasionally rubbed the 

 saddle against the side of the tank 

 until the attachment was tightened to 

 reduce free-play of the saddle as the 

 animal swam. On the day before re- 

 lease, cracking of the polypropylene 

 sutures was noticed, requiring their 

 replacement with sutures of the same 



diameter composed of polyvinyl chlor- 

 ide coated stainless steel. These were 

 found to be more pliable and stronger 

 than the polypropylene. 



At the last visual sighting of the 

 animal on 7 April 1972. the instru- 

 ment package was still securely at- 

 tached despite the fact that, on several 

 occasions, kelp had been seen trailing 

 from it (J. S. Leatherwood. pers. 

 comm.). At this time, we have no in- 

 dication that this procedure has. in 

 any way. compromised the ability of 

 this animal to survive. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Curran. M. P., and W. M. Asher, 1974. 

 Investigation of blubber thickness in a 

 gray whale using ultrasonography. Mar. 

 Fish. Rev. 36(4): lS-20. 



Evans. W. E. 1971. Orientation behavior 

 of delphinids: radio telernetric studies. 

 Ann-N.-*'. .Acad. Sci. 188:142-160. 



Martin, H., W. E. Evans, and C. A. Bowers. 

 1971. Methods for Radio Tracking Ma- 

 rine Mammals in the open sea. IEEE Eng. 

 in the Ocean Environ. Conf. p. 44-49. 



Usher, F. C, J. E. Allen, Jr., R. W. Crosth- 

 wait, and J. E. Cogan. 1962. Polypro- 

 pylene monofilament. A new biologically 

 inert suture tor closing contaminated 

 wounds. Am. Med. Assoc. 179:780-782. 



MFR Paper 1048. From Marine Fisheries Review, Vol. 

 36, No. 4. April 1974. Copies of this paper, in limited 

 numbers, are available from D83. Technical Informa- 

 tion Division, Environmental Science Information 

 Center, NCAA, Washington, DC 20235. 



MFR PAPER 1049 



Some Hematologic Observations on 

 the California Gray Whale 



ALFRED ZETTNER 



ABSTRACT 



E.Kiiininalitin of llic blood of the California i;ray whale, ohlaiiwil .shortly 

 after its arrival at Sea World, San Dieijo revealed the followiiti; data: H'BC-IJI.^ 

 X \0->lciihic mm: RBC-2.4 X IO<^jcuhic mm: hemof^lohin-IO.O gjlOO ml: 

 hematocrit-31 percent: MCV-128 jj-^: MCH-42.8 tijdii: MCHC-32.4 percent. 

 Hemonlohin electrophoresis showed a sini;le hemof^lohin hand with a mobility 

 similar to that oj human hemoi;lobiii /•'. I he whale hemoiilobin was 100 percent 

 alkali resistant. No changes of this hemoi;lobin were seen on repeated analyses 

 over the course of 12 months. 



The capture of a young, female 

 California gray whale. Eschrichiiits 

 rohitstiis, in .Scammon's Lagoon, and 

 its maintenance in captivity at Sea 

 World, San Diego for 12 months pro- 

 Alfred Zetlner is a physiciun 

 with the Division of Clinical 

 Palholouy, Depart incnt of Palii- 

 olosy. School of Medicine, L'ni- 

 versitv of California, San Diego, 

 CA 92103. 



vided the opportunity for some hema- 

 tologic studies which are to be report- 

 ed here. 



ROUTINE BLOOD 

 EXAMINATION 



A heparini^ed blood sample ob- 

 tained on 18 March 1971. one day 

 after the arrival of the whale at Sea 

 World, was brouuht to the Clinical 



Laboratories of University Hospital. 

 University of California. San Diego. 

 The blood was analyzed on a Coulter 

 Counter.' Model "S". which allows 

 the automatic simultaneous determin- 

 ation of cell counts, mean corpuscular 

 volume (MCV). and hemoglobin con- 

 tent. The hematocrit, mean corpuscu- 

 lar hemoglobin (MCH). and the mean 

 corpuscular hemoglobin concentra- 

 tion (MCHC) are automatically com- 

 puted from the three parameters 

 measured (Pinkerton et al., 1970) 

 The instrument is standardized twice 

 daily and performs approximately 200 

 analyses per day for clinical purposes. 

 The results were the following: 



WBC-13.9 X lO^Vcubic mm 



RBC-2.4 X lO'Vcubic mm 



Hemoglobin- 1 0.0 g/ 1 00 ml 



HCT-3 I percent 



MCV- 128 /J-' 



MCH-42.8;ttiUg 



MCHC-32.4 percent 

 A blood smear was prepared and 

 stained by the automatic HEMA- 

 TEK- technique, which employs a 



'Coulter Electronics, Inc , Hialeati. Fla Refer- 

 ences to trade names does not imply endorse- 

 ment by ttie National tvlarine Fistienes Service. 

 NOAA. 



^Ames Company. Division of Miles Laboratories, 

 Inc. Elktiart. Ind 



22 



