Byrd et al.: Strandings as indicators of marine mammal biodiversity and human interactions 
17 
Table 5 
Categories of human interaction (HI) for marine mammal strandings in North Carolina during 1997-2008: HI-FI (fishery 
interaction), Hi-other (other HI evidence), Hl-no (no evidence of HI), and HI-CBD (could not be determined). Hi-other types 
are: mutil. (mutilation), vessel strike, ingest, plastic (ingested plastics), entangl. debris (entanglement in debris), gunshot 
(gunshot injury), and harass, (harassment). Each species or other taxonomic category with at least one record positive for 
(HI) is listed separately from “Other species”. 
Hi-other 
HI 
Vessel Ingest. Entangl. Gun 
HI- 
HI- 
Species by family 
-FI 
Mutil. 
strike plastic debris shot 
Harass. 
no 
CBD 
Total 
Balaenidae 
Eubalaena glacialis 
1 
1 
i 
2 
5 
Balaenopteridae 
Balaenoptera acutorostrata 
2 
i 
5 
8 
Balaenoptera edeni 
1 
1 
Balaenoptera physalus 
1 
2 
3 
Megaptera novaeangliae 
10 
1 
i 
11 
23 
Unidentified balaenopterid 
1 
2 
3 
Delphinidae 
Delphinus delphis 
2 
22 
22 
46 
Globicephala macrorhynchus 11 
2 
1 
14 
17 
45 
Grampus griseus 
1 
1 
9 
7 
18 
Stenella coeruleoalba 
2 
29 
8 
39 
Tursiops truncatus coastal 
181 
25 
3 1 2 
179 
648 
1039 
Tursiops truncatus offshore 
2 
15 
2 
19 
Unidentified delphinid 
2 
21 
23 
Kogiidae 
Kogia breviceps 
1 
32 
20 
53 
Phocidae 
Cystophora cristata 
1 
6 
4 
11 
Halichoerus grypus 
1 
5 
6 
12 
Phoca vitulina 
9 
1 2 
4 
24 
33 
73 
Phocoenidae 
Phocoena phocoena 
11 
8 
33 
197 
249 
Physeteridae 
Physeter macrocephalus 
1 
3 
4 
8 
Ziphiidae 
Mesoplodon densirostris 
1 
3 
3 
7 
Mesoplodon europaeus 
2 
7 
4 
13 
Other 
Unknown marine mammal 
1 
2 
20 
23 
Other species 
68 
58 
126 
Total 
237 
37 
7 6 2 2 
8 
452 
1096 
1847 
poral stranding pattern as that of northern species. 
Those species with a more cosmopolitan distribution 
also were found most often north or just south of 
Cape Hatteras, but in contrast to the more northern 
or southern species, they, along with beaked whales, 
also stranded southwest of Cape Fear. Strandings 
of beaked whales were too few to detect trends, al- 
though the 2 months with the greatest number of 
Gervais’ beaked whales were during summer. 
Spatially, strandings of Kogia were similar to those 
of the cosmopolitan non -Kogia pelagic odontocetes. Al- 
though dwarf sperm whales have more tropical distri- 
bution than pygmy sperm whales (Chivers et al., 2005), 
the 2 species showed no obvious difference in their 
stranding distribution. Temporally, in contrast to the 
non -Kogia pelagic odontocetes, neither Kogia species 
showed a significant monthly pattern, which may be 
due to small sample sizes or presence offshore through- 
out the year. 
The majority of fishery interactions among pelagic 
odontocetes were evident by healed lesions. Pilot whales 
and Risso’s dolphins commonly interact with the pelagic 
longline fishery which operates throughout the west- 
ern North Atlantic and elsewhere (Garrison, 2007). The 
presence of healed FI lesions on strandings indicates 
that some hooked animals survive. On the other hand, 
animals killed in the longline fishery with resulting 
fresh lesions are far from shore and unlikely to strand. 
