The Stranding Program will be offering an “Assessment of Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles Class,” in March 2005. The class will cover how to assess whether a manatee, dolphin and/or sea turtle is behaving normally or is sick/injured. You must have taken the Animal Handler Class and have volunteered in the Dolphin Whale Hospital (DWH) for at least 3 months to be eligible for this stranding class. Please stay tuned for more information regarding the exact date and time of the class.
Between
September 29
and
December 31, 2004
, the Stranding Investigations Program (SIP) has continued to respond to reports of stranded dolphins, whales, manatees and sea turtles. SIP responded to 53 incidents: 28 manatee related, 8 dolphin or whale related and 12 sea turtle related calls (the 4 remaining calls regarded non-marine mammal or sea turtle species). Efforts during this period resulted in recovery of 2 dead dolphins, 3 dead and 3 live sea turtles. See below for details.
Dolphin and Whale Strandings
MML 0418 – This adult male bottlenose dolphin stranded dead on October 1st in
San Carlos
Bay
in Lee county. The carcass was severely bloated and decomposed, preventing determination of cause of death at necropsy.
MML 0419 – This dead dolphin was recovered from
Terra
Ceia
Bay
in
Manatee
County
on December 4th. The dolphin had been severely shark scavenged throughout the ventral portion of the body, exposing the body cavity and all organs. A necropsy was performed, but cause of death was unable to be determined due to the condition of the carcass.
Sea Turtle Strandings
Categories for the 6 sea turtles and stranding details are as follows:
|
Cause of Death Category-Sea Turtles
|
Number of Animals
|
|
Live stranded
|
3
|
|
Not examined or undetermined due to advanced decomposition
|
3
|
|
Fisheries interactions-boat strikes, entanglements
|
0
|
|
Natural Causes (including emaciation, bacterial disease, GI perforations)
|
0
|
|
Total
|
6
|
ST 0457 – This live leatherback sea turtle (carapace length was estimated to be about 4 ft long) was found floating on October 24th, four miles off of
Longboat
Pass
, entangled in crab trap gear. The buoy and line were wrapped around its neck and flipper, preventing movement. The citizen who reported this incident was able to disentangle it and the turtle swam away.
ST 0458 – This loggerhead sea turtle was entangled in crab trap line around its rear flipper a half mile off of Venice Inlet on October 26th. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Law Enforcement officers were quickly able to cut the turtle out of the gear and release it.
ST 0459, ST 0460, ST 0461 – All of these dead turtles were loggerheads that were too decomposed to examine for necropsy.
ST 0462 “
Lido
” - This live loggerhead sea turtle was found near
Lido
Beach
on December 29th. It was extremely emaciated, anemic, and lethargic. The turtle is being treated at the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital and is slowly gaining strength. Please see www.mote.org for continuing care of this turtle.
Lido on arrival.
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Manatee Exhibit
The vibrissae tactile sensitivity study that Hugh and Buffett participated in will be completed in early January. Results suggest that the sensitivity of manatees is among the best reported for animals including humans. Training for the sound localization study is well underway and both manatees are progressing rapidly at the task. This study will investigate their ability to determine the location of various presented sounds. The frequency and decibel levels of these sounds were derived from an auditory evoked potential study that was conducted with the manatees last year. (Back to top)
