MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1998 



that stranded in North Carolina showed possible 

 evidence of fisheries interactions. 



Response to Unusual Mortality Events 



As noted in previous Commission reports, the 

 deaths of hundreds of bottlenose dolphins along the 

 U.S. mid-Atlantic coast in 1987-1988 led Congress to 

 add Title IV — Marine Mammal Health and Stranding 

 Response — to the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 

 1992. Among other things, the new title directed the 

 Secretary of Commerce to (1) establish an expert 

 working group to provide advice on measures neces- 

 sary to better detect and respond appropriately to 

 future unusual marine mammal mortality events; (2) 

 develop a contingency plan for guiding response to 

 such events; (3) establish a fund to compensate 

 persons for certain costs incurred in responding to 

 unusual mortality events; (4) develop objective criteria 

 for determining when rehabilitated marine mammals 

 can be returned to the wild; (5) continue development 

 of the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank (de- 

 scribed in previous Marine Mammal Commission 

 annual reports); and (6) establish and maintain a 

 central database for tracking and accessing data 

 concerning marine mammal strandings. 



The Secretary of Commerce delegated responsibili- 

 ty for these directives to the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service. In response, the Service, in consultation 

 with the Marine Mammal Commission and the Fish 

 and Wildlife Service, established a working group in 

 1993 to advise on measures necessary to better detect 

 and respond to unusual marine mammal mortality 

 events. The group held its first meeting in April 1993 

 and has met annually since then. Representatives of 

 the Marine Mammal Commission have served on the 

 working group since it was established. 



An external program review of the Marine Mam- 

 mal Health and Stranding Response Program was held 

 on 23-25 April 1997 in Silver Spring, Maryland. 

 Participating were representatives of federal and state 

 agencies, international organizations, the academic 

 community, and non-governmental organizations. 

 Participants were divided into two panels: one to 

 consider operations of the regional stranding networks 



and the other to review the biomonitoring component 

 of the program. The results of the review were used 

 to improve both the stranding response and biomoni- 

 toring programs. 



A follow-up workshop was held at the Southeast 

 Fisheries Science Center in Miami on 30-31 July 

 1998 to seek the views of scientists, operators, and 

 others concerning minimum quarantine, food han- 

 dling, and other standards for facilities that rescue and 

 rehabilitate sick and injured marine mammals. At the 

 end of 1998 no decision had been made concerning 

 the need for or content of possible standards. 



National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank 



As described in previous Commission reports, the 

 National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank was established 

 in 1989 by the National Marine Fisheries Service's 

 Office of Protected Resources to archive tissues fi-om 

 marine mammals in different geographic areas as a 

 resource for future research. The contaminants 

 present in the tissues may be good indicators of the 

 types and levels of pollutants present in coastal marine 

 ecosystems. As noted earlier, there is insufficient 

 information to determine how, at what levels, or in 

 what combinations envirormiental contaminants may 

 affect marine mammals. Archived tissues provide a 

 source of data for comparison with data to be collect- 

 ed during future unusual events. 



Early in the development of the tissue bank, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service established an 

 independent team of scientists to provide advice on the 

 types of tissues that should be archived and how the 

 tissues should be collected, stored, and made available 

 for study. The Service also began a quality assurance 

 and contaminant monitoring program. A Commission 

 representative serves on the team. 



The Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Re- 

 sponse Act also required that the Secretary of Com- 

 merce provide information to stranding networks on 

 procedures for dealing with stranded marine mam- 

 mals. In response, the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service in 1990 contracted for a field manual to guide 

 the responses of stranding network participants. 



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