Chapter V — Marine Mammal Strandings and Die-offs 



Marine Mammals Ashore: A Field Guide for 

 Strandings was published in 1993 (see Appendix C, 

 Geraci and Lounsbury). The Marine Mammal Com- 

 mission provided funds to help illustrate this manual. 



By 1997 the field guide was out of print. In 

 response to continuing demand for the manual and the 

 desire to (1) encourage development of stranding 

 networks in other countries, (2) promote adherence to 

 standardized methods of sample and data collection, 

 and (3) increase international communication and 

 cooperation during investigation of unusual marine 

 mammal mortality events, the National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Service, National Ocean Service, and National 

 Aquarium in Baltimore jointly developed an updated 

 CD-ROM version of Marine Mammals Ashore. The 

 National Sea Grant College Program and the Marine 

 Mammal Commission provided additional support. 

 The CD-ROM version was released in late 1998 and 

 may be obtained from the National Aquarium in 

 Baltimore, Biological Programs, Marine Mammals 

 Ashore Project, Pier 3, 501 E. Pratt Street, Baltimore 

 MD 21202, or by contacting the aquarium on the 

 World Wide Web at www:aqua.org. 



Serum/Blood Banking for Marine Mammals 



In order to better understand the causes of popula- 

 tion declines and the impacts of human activities on 

 marine mammal populations and to investigate the 

 causes of marine mammal mortalities, it is important 

 to know what diseases are endemic in the affected 

 population and whether a new pathogen may have 

 been introduced to an immunologically naive popula- 

 tion. The value of banked sera for retrospective 

 studies has been clearly demonstrated for pathogens 

 including morbillivirus and Brucella. Thus, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service is developing a 

 catalog of the marine animal serum samples being 

 banked in the United States. In conjunction with the 

 Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary 

 Services Laboratory, the Service has designed a 

 quality assurance program for serological testing, 

 which involves development of standard reference 

 materials and interlaboratory comparisons for six 

 pathogens. The Service is working with three estab- 

 lished sera banks to integrate banking programs. 



The National Contingency Plan 



In response to directives in Title IV of the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act, the National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Service developed a contingency plan to guide 

 responses to unusual marine mammal mortality events 

 in U.S. waters. The Commission, in consultation 

 with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, reviewed 

 and provided comments on draft plans in September 

 1994 and March 1995. The final plan, done in 

 consultation with the Marine Mammal Unusual 

 Mortality Event Working Group, was published by the 

 Service in September 1996. 



The plan, titled the "National Contingency Plan for 

 Response to Unusual Marine Mammal Mortality 

 Events," notes that Title IV of the Marine Mammal 

 Protection Act specifies that responses to unusual 

 mortality events are to be directed by an on-site 

 coordinator, who is to be the appropriate regional 

 director of the National Marine Fisheries Service or 

 the Fish and Wildlife Service or his or her designee. 

 The plan's primary purpose is to provide guidance to 

 the regional directors of the two Services on such 

 things as (1) criteria to determine when an unusual 

 event is occurring; (2) steps to protect public health 

 and welfare in cases where dead or dying animals, or 

 the agents killing them, could pose a threat; (3) plan- 

 ning to respond to unusual events; (4) depending on 

 the nature of the event, steps to determine the cause 

 and biological significance of the event; and (5) steps 

 to document the collection and disposition of tissue 

 and other samples, especially in cases where the 

 mortality event may be a consequence of a toxic 

 chemical spill or other human-related action. 



In April 1997 the Fish and Wildlife Service com- 

 pleted its "Contingency Plan for Catastrophic Manatee 

 Rescue and Mortality Events," intended for use in 

 conjunction with the national plan. Later in 1997 the 

 Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 

 involved in routine manatee rescue and salvage efforts 

 as well as in responses to the 1996 red tide-related 

 die-off, developed a substantially more detailed plan 

 to guide state response efforts and to effectively utilize 

 existing and potential sources of logistic support, 

 expertise, and funding. In November 1998 the Fish 

 and Wildlife Service released the a revision of its 



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