18 
Fishery Bulletin 1 12(1) 
Table 6 
Gear types found attached to or ingested by marine mammal strandings classified as HI-FI (human interaction evi- 
dence type is fishery interaction) (n= 44) in North Carolina during 1997-2008. Seven animals were released alive. 
Research gear was set by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF). 
Species 
Gear type 
Ocean-side 
In-shore 
Live release 
Balaenoptera edeni 
line, trap or pot 
1 
Megaptera novaeangliae 
gill net 
2 
Phoca vitulina 
fishhook 
1 
gill net 
3 
1 
Tursiops truncatus coastal 
beach seine, multifilament research gear 
1 
beach seine, twine type unknown 
1 
1 
fishhook (ingested) 
1 
gill net 
10 
1 
2 
gill net, beach-anchored 
5 
Gill net, research 
line, monofilament and large hook 
1 
1 
line, monofilament 
line, monofilament-mixed 
1 
2 
line, nylon with clear jug attached 
1 
1 
line, trap or pot 
3 
1 
line, thick multifilament — unknown source i 
1 
pound net 
stop net 
1 
1 
trawler, noncommercial 
1 
Tursiops truncatus offshore 
line, monofilament 
1 
Unidentified balaenopterid 
mixed-mutifilament webbing, rope, mono- 
1 
filament line, plastic bags 
Unidentified delphinid 
line, polypropylene 
line, trap or pot 
1 
l 2 
1 
Unidentified odontocete 
line, monofilament 
1 
Total 
33 
11 
7 
1 Line not recovered and source unknown, but animal had entanglement lesions consistent with webbing. 
2 Likely Tursiops truncatus coastal because occurrence was inshore. 
All the pilot whales recovered with healed FI lesions 
occurred during a single stranding event and, thus, theo- 
retically were from a single pod. Perhaps depredation 
of longline gear is a learned behavior that is confined 
within particular pods (Whitehead et al., 2004). 
Baleen whales The overall presence of baleen whales 
primarily from winter through spring and their near 
absence during summer (May-September) align with 
known migration patterns (Rice, 1998). The most 
commonly stranded baleen whales were humpback 
and minke whales; these species may be more com- 
mon in the stranding record because of their rela- 
tive population abundance compared with that of 
other species of baleen whales, or they may be more 
common because of their distribution closer to shore 
(Waring et al., 2009b), or for both reasons. Hump- 
back and minke whales were entirely represented 
by immature individuals, consistent with prior re- 
ports from New Jersey through Florida (Wiley et ah, 
1995). Wiley et al. (1995) suggested that some juve- 
nile humpback whales may not migrate as far south 
as adults, but instead spend time feeding at 
mid-latitudes. 
Along with vessel strikes, entanglement in fishing 
gear is a serious problem for large whales (Wiley et 
ah, 1995; Kraus et al., 2005). The high rate of HI-FI 
strandings for humpback whales (10 of 23 or 43%) 
was higher than that reported during 1985-92 from 
New Jersey to Florida (5 of 20 or 25%) (Wiley et al., 
1995). Humpback whales stranded in NC with fresh 
FI lesions were not necessarily entangled in gear set 
in NC because some whales carry entangling gear for 
an extended period of time before the entanglement 
potentially leads to the animal’s death (Knowlton et 
al., 2012). Entanglement of whales has occurred, how- 
ever, in gill nets set off NC. In one of these cases the 
whale died and later stranded. In the other case, the 
animal never stranded but instead breached, shook the 
net free, and was seen swimming without any gear at- 
