Researchers take a blood sample from a bottlenose dolphin in North Carolina this summer. 



Don't push it back out to sea, says 

 Wood. The body will probably wash 

 up again farther down the beach, and, 

 if the stranding has been reported, it 

 makes it that much harder for a 

 MMSN response team to do its job. 



Many people don't realize how 

 easily a dolphin in distress can inflict 

 injury, says Wood. "When a dolphin is 

 flipping its tail around and flailing, it 

 could break a person's neck or smash 

 their face. It sounds melodramatic, but 

 that's the truth of it. It's like being 

 kicked by a horse." 



There is also potential for disease 

 transmission, which is why volunteers 

 take special precautions when working 

 with the mammals. The measures are 

 part of a strict protocol established by 

 the National Marine Fisheries Service 



(NMFS) under the National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration. 

 MMSN volunteers meticulously 

 follow the procedure as they collect 

 blood samples, tissue samples and 

 other steps in a necropsy, an animal 

 autopsy. 



"There's a finite number of 

 people in North Carolina who can 

 handle marine mammals. Just because 

 you're interested in them, doesn't 

 mean you can handle them," Wood 

 says. To join the network, potential 

 volunteers must apply through NMFS 

 and, if accepted, receive further 

 training. 



A beeper helps network coordi- 

 nator Vicky Thayer monitor late- 

 night stranding reports, which 

 proliferate at certain times of the 



year. "In the spring, I get five to six 

 calls a week at home," says Thayer, 

 who works for NMFS. "Spring is 

 really busy." 



There have been no successful 

 releases of live dolphins in North 

 Carolina, Thayer says. Successful 

 releases most often occur in cases of 

 mass strandings, which have happened 

 infrequently here. 



"Most of the animals that strand 

 are sick; they're going to die anyway," 

 explains Dan O'Dell, volunteer 

 scientific coordinator for the South- 

 eastern Atlantic-Caribbean MMSN. 

 O'Dell's job includes tabulating a data 

 base for the region, which stretches 

 from North Carolina to Texas and 

 includes Puerto Rico and the Virgin 

 Islands. 



8 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1995 



