"North Carolina has an extremely 

 impressive array of marine mammals 

 because of latitude," David Lee says. 

 Lee is the curator of birds and mam- 

 mals at the North Carolina State 

 Museum of Natural History in 

 Raleigh. He says the state's waters 

 have some species that are migratory, 

 some that are permanent residents, 

 and some that reside here only in win- 

 ter or in summer. 



"It wouldn't be accurate to list 

 species native to the state," Lee says, 

 "because many are migratory. Besides, 

 they live underwater and we can't see 

 them, so we don't know much about 

 them." (See page 6 for a list of marine 

 mammals reported in the state.) 



The manatee is one species that has 

 managed to go unsighted in recent 

 years. Historical reports as late as the 

 early 1900s indicated that the manatee 

 regularly migrated to the southern 

 coast of North Carolina from Florida 

 during the summer. But heavy ex- 

 ploitation of the meat, especially dur- 

 ing the Depression, drastically reduced 

 the population. Lee says there are now 

 about 1,000 manatees left in the Un- 

 ited States, placing the species on the 

 endangered list and under federal 

 protection. 



"During the summers of '75 and 



'76," Lee says, "we (the museum) par- 

 ticipated in a cooperative program 

 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 to determine the current status of the 

 animal in North Carolina. We 

 postulated that manatees still occurred 

 in lower numbers in the Cape Fear es- 

 tuary and in even lower numbers a lit- 

 tle further north, like Beaufort." In- 

 formation resulting from the search in- 

 dicates that this marine mammal may 

 still occur in the state's waters from 

 June to early October, but no popula- 

 tion estimates have been made. 



Sightings of manatees aren't easy to 

 come by because the animals frequent 

 the murky waters found in estuaries 

 and along the shore. "The last 

 documented manatee (outside its 

 native Florida waters) was found dead 

 in the Chesapeake Bay," Lee says. "It 

 swam through North Carolina waters, 

 but no one saw it. They are just so 

 hard to see in the water, and then they 

 only stick their noses up for air. Most 

 people aren't even aware that they 

 could be out there." 



There are approximately 30 species 

 of marine mammals that have been 

 reported in the state's waters, ac- 

 cording to Lee. Some species, like the 

 northern hooded seal, are rare here, 

 while harbor seals occur regularly 



along shore. Chances of seeing the big 

 whales offshore are very limited 

 though. "You might see some pilot 

 whales and dolphins," Lee explains, 

 "but even in a big boat offshore, you 

 can't cover that much ocean, and the 

 water is often too rough to see. Our 

 knowledge of abundance of these 

 mammals is based on what we do see 

 and what gets stranded." 



Scientists here and around the world 

 are trying to uncover more informa- 

 tion about the species and populations 

 of marine mammals. Many of these 

 populations have declined. Gone are 

 the days of big whaling camps along 

 the Outer Banks and New England. 

 The International Whaling Commis- 

 sion, which was formed in 1946, has in 

 recent years lowered kill quotas of 

 some species and put bans on killing 

 other species. 



In the United States, all marine 

 mammals come under the jurisdiction 

 of the federal Marine Mammal Protec- 

 tion Act of 1972, and the manatee is 

 further protected by the Endangered 

 Species Act of 1975. While scientists 

 aren't expecting populations to com- 

 pletely recover, they are trying to en- 

 sure that enough mammals survive to 

 keep the species and research alive. 



— Cassie Griffin 



Strandings: A source of data, a biological mystery 



There are huge gaps in man's 

 knowledge of marine mammals. These 

 diverse and mysterious sea creatures 

 spend most of their lives underwater, 

 making observations and most stan- 

 dard research work difficult. 



Oddly enough, the bulk of informa- 

 tion available on marine mammals 

 comes from dead specimens, not living 

 ones. Scientists study strandings to 

 learn about feeding habits, the rates 

 and causes of natural mortality, 

 breeding and populations. Skeletons, 

 brains, and other valuable parts of the 

 animal are preserved for research. 



The first studies of marine mammal 

 strandings took place at the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in Washington, 

 D.C. Whale scientist Frederick W. 

 True circulated a letter to lighthouse 

 keepers, light stations and lifesaving 

 stations asking them to notify him of 

 strandings. True kept records of this 

 information and, when he could, 

 salvaged the remains for his research. 



His work lasted from the early 1880s 

 until 1914. 



From 1914 until 1972, data on 

 strandings was collected only in bits 

 and pieces by zoologists and univer- 

 sities with an interest in marine mam- 

 mals. In 1972, James Mead, curator of 

 the Division of Mammals at the 

 Smithsonian, set up the Marine Mam- 

 mal Salvage Program. 



"The program has two aspects," 

 Mead says. "First, we set up a network 

 of people who have regular access to 

 the coast, and we got them to call us 

 with notification of a stranding. Second- 

 ly, we developed a way to go and get 

 data from the animals, which provides 

 a source of data for research and for 

 the museum's collection." 



In the beginning, the program 

 covered strandings from Cape Cod to 

 Charleston, South Carolina. In recent 

 years, four active organizations have 

 picked up most of the work north of 

 Washington, D.C. and the program 



now concentrates its work force of two 

 (Mead and Charley Potter) on 

 Maryland, Virginia and the North 

 Carolina coast as far south as 

 Ocracoke. (David Lee of the State 

 Museum of Natural History is respon- 

 sible for compiling records on the 

 remaining coastline.) Potter and Mead 

 say they will travel anywhere in the 

 world, though, for a rare species. 



Mead, who has personally covered 

 400 of the 1,500 strandings since the 

 program began, has been collecting 

 theories on why marine mammals 

 strand. One of the first big theories in- 

 volved worms in the mammal's ear. 

 Because marine mammals depend on 

 sound for determining sense of direc- 

 tion, it was thought that the worms 

 caused the mammals to stray off 

 course and strand. This theory lost 

 credence when later strandings 

 revealed no worms present in the 

 mammals. Mead says that some people 

 also believe that since cetaceans were 



