Abstract

In 1990 the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) created the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Program at the Cooperative Oxford Laboratory in Oxford, MD. The purpose of the program is to respond to dead-stranded marine animals and determine trends based on several factors including species identification, location, length, sex, age, decomposition state, and date of the stranding. The National Aquarium responds to live-stranded animals. Physical record files are kept at MD DNR and data are entered into the Department of Commerce/National Marine Fisheries Service/Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program database. The response area includes the Maryland portions of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast.

A total of 457 marine mammals representing 28 species have stranded since the beginning of the program. Males and females strand in approximately equal numbers and most are subadults. The largest MD DNR recorded animal is the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and the smallest is the harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is the most commonly stranded marine mammal. Most strandings are found along the Atlantic Coast.

A typical stranding response involves 1) the collection of morphometric data, 2) recording of external observations, and 3) diagnostic sampling conducted during a full necropsy examination. Diagnostics include the collection of tissues for microbiology, virology, histology, parasitology, and toxicology. For the past 15 years, blubber, liver and kidney have been analyzed for heavy metals and PCBs. Future efforts will summarize the findings of contaminant analyses.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank staff and volunteers at the Cooperative Oxford Laboratory.