Dear colleagues, The authors would like to share the following recently published article:
Bogomolni AB, Pugliares KP, Sharp SM, Patchett K, Harry CT, LaRocque JM, Touhey KM, Moore M (2010) Mortality trends of stranded marine mammals on Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts, USA, 2000 to 2006. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 88: 143-155. ABSTRACT: To understand the cause of death of 405 marine mammals stranded on Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts between 2000 and 2006, a system for coding final diagnosis was developed and categorized as (1) disease, (2) human interaction, (3) mass stranded with no significant findings,(4) single-stranded with no significant findings, (5) rock and/or sand ingestion, (6) predatory attack, (7) failure to thrive or dependent calf or pup, or (8) other. The cause of death for 91 animals could not be determined. For the 314 animals that could be assigned a cause of death, gross and histological pathology results and ancillary testing indicated that disease was the leading cause of mortality in the region, affecting 116/314 (37%) of cases. Human interaction, including harassment, entanglement, and vessel collision, fatally affected 31/314 (10%) of all animals. Human interaction accounted for 13/29 (45%) of all determined gray seal Halichoerus grypus mortalities. Mass strandings were most likely to occur in northeastern Cape Cod Bay; 97/106 (92%) of mass stranded animals necropsied presented with no significant pathological findings. Mass strandings were the leading cause of death in 3 of the 4 small cetacean species: 46/67 (69%) of Atlantic white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus acutus, 15/21 (71%) of long-finned pilot whale Globicephala melas, and 33/54(61%) of short-beaked common dolphin Delphinus delphis. These baseline data are critical for understanding marine mammal population health and mortality trends, which in turn have significant conservation and management implications. They not only afford a better retrospective analysis of strandings, but ultimately have application for improving current and future response to live animal stranding. Please note that the full article is available open access at the following link: http://www.int-res.com/articles/dao_oa/d088p143.pdf (thus there is no need to request a PDF or reprint). The individual case data are also available open access at: http://www.int-res.com/articles/suppl/d088p143_app.pdf Kind regards, Katie Moore Katie (Touhey) Moore Manager Marine Mammal Rescue & Research International Fund for Animal Welfare 290 Summer Street Yarmouth Port, MA 02675 508.744.2276 (office) 508-744-2099 (fax) 508.743-9548 (Emergency Stranding Hotline, 24 hrs.) [email protected] www.capecodstranding.net <http://www.capecodstranding.net/> --------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: The International Fund for Animal Welfare works to improve the welfare of wild and domestic animals throughout the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress. IFAW seeks to motivate the public to prevent cruelty to animals and to promote animal welfare and conservation policies that advance the well-being of both animals and people. This transmission is intended only for use by the addressee (s) named herein and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential and/or legally privileged.
_______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
