Report: 1999 July Newsletter

Activities Report 1999 July Newsletter

Stranded Marine Mammals

    It is sad that a dolphin stranded on a beach died while the fisherman was trying to save it by relo-cating it into a pond. Since this type of incident is not common in Malaysia the public needs to be educated on the correct course of action when they come across a stranded or beached sea animal.
    Generally, a stranded sea animal is any live marine animal which is out of its survival range. In this case, a dolphin although breathing air, needs water to survive. In general, a marine animal may strand if it has a severe, debilitating illness or injury, if it is too weak to hunt for food, or other conditions threaten its survival (habitat loss, oil spills, lack of food, storms, toxins etc).. Reports of stranding are on the increase world-wide, partly due to the weather patterns brought by El Nino. Their survival depends on our intervention.
    Stranded animals provide valuable information for research. They provide insight into their biology and ecology. This information is necessary to conserve these threatened and endangered species. There are marine mammals rescue and rehabilitation centres around the world. These are specially formed to do research on stranded or beached marine animals (biology, migratory and resident patterns, pollutants effects, diseases, etc), and to rescue, rehabilitate, and release. Beached animals refer only to washed up dead marine animals. These centres also act to increase awareness and educate the public on how we affect the animals, how to protect and conserve them. The need for a detailed post-mortem on the dead dolphin, dugongs or other marine mammals is necessary to find out the actual cause of death, as it can provide information on the condition of the sea and the runoffs
into the sea.
    MNS recommends that the Fisheries Department, Malaysian Society of Marine Science or any other marine institution to set up such a centre/network or a program to specialise in these operations. Special permits will have to be arranged by the Fisheries Department to other institutions or NGOs who set up these centres, as it is illegal to keep these protected animals. Lately the Fisheries Department has been successful in its turtle rehabilitation program to increase the marine turtles population.
    MNS is in the process of promoting education and awareness programs on marine animals. An informed public and public support (volunteers and donations) are important and with government encouragement and support, will help in marine habitat conservation.
Dato' Dr Salleh Mohd Nor           Letter to the Editor, Kuala Lumpur, 1 April 1999

Appendix: An extract from the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network website on Marine Mammal Rescue Tips — Dolphin First Aid (www.tmmsn.org/strandings/response.html).
Follow-ing these tips can keep the animal alive and reduce its stress until help arrives.

Call the local Fisheries Department, or a marine research institution. Valuable research about these animals and our environment can be gained.
Do not return animal to the sea. They are there for a reason, usually sick or injured.
Keep people and pets away from the animal. Only one or two people are needed until expert help arrives. Do not leave the animal; they need comfort and cannot keep themselves upright
Relieve pressure on fins by digging holes under them. To relieve pressure on lungs you can dig under the mammal and fill the pit with water
Keep the animal cool and wet by splashing water on the skin. Avoid getting water in the blowhole (top of the head)
Apply wet towels or T-shirts and provide a shade if possible using tarps or towels. Keep the blowhole free of obstruction and take care not to cover the dorsal fin, flippers or tail
Apply sunscreen or zinc oxide, not suntan oil. The dolphin's skin is very sensitive and can burn severely
Apply ice packs to the dorsal fin, pectoral flippers, or flukes to keep the animal from overheating, but do not let the ice contact the skin directly
If the animal is in the surf, support it upright. Keep water out of the blowhole. If possible, carefully move mammal into shallow water but keep it in the water.
Be careful around the powerful tail.

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