Comprehensive Stranding Investigations High Priority Species

About

This project provides financial support for comprehensive stranding investigations in order to obtain increased baseline information about the health of marine mammals. Such support is essential when considering the Pacific Islands region (PIR) where unique geographical challenges exist. The PIR is comprised of isolated islands, spanning over 4 million square miles across the North, South and Western Pacific basins and includes the Hawai‘i Range Complex and the Mariana Islands Range Complex. Cetacean stranding investigative efforts for the PIR are centralized at a dedicated stranding facility located at Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i (MCBH). This specialized facility houses the University of Hawai‘i (UH) Health and Stranding Lab, which plays a critical role as the only organization in the region to conduct cause of death investigations when dolphins and whales strand. This requires established relationships with partners throughout the region and the mounting of an immediate response to each newly reported stranding event that occurs. The UH Health and Stranding Lab conducts extensive necropsy examinations, including histopathology, disease surveillance, and tissue sampling in support of numerous research efforts aimed at better understanding Hawaiian cetaceans. In addition to this project facilitating advanced diagnostics in-house at the Health and Stranding Lab, we also report on progress towards a project option to measure fecal stress and reproductive hormones in Pacific Island cetaceans. An additional project option includes characterizing marine debris ingestion by abundance and mass in previously stranded short-finned pilot whales. Progress associated with the project option in support of the marine debris analyses has been prepared for peer-reviewed publication in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. These findings are described separately from the base tasks and fecal hormones option in the attached manuscript draft.