NOAA announces new strategy for marine strandings

On a bone-chilling January day nearly four years ago, more than 30 whales were scattered along five miles of beach in Cape Hatteras National Seashore near Oregon Inlet. At least half were already dead, and the rest were suffering on the sand, their mass not buoyed by water.

The Southeast U.S. Stranding Network had been called about 7:30 a.m.; by late afternoon, more than 40 members of a team led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were at the site or on their way.

Working for three days in a stiff northeast wind, the members used stretchers to move carcasses away from the surf. Live whales were examined. Some had to be euthanized. Tissue samples were taken. Necropsies were conducted. Carcasses were buried.

That effort in an unusually large mass stranding was an example of NOAA's role as the lead responder in stranding incidents. But since Oct. 1, the budget-strained agency is no longer taking charge of North Carolina strandings, leaving other team members scrambling to reorganize an effective response network.

"This is a tough situation," said Michelle Bogardus, a biotechnician with Cape Hatteras National Seashore. "We're all trying to muddle through this. It's going to take awhile to get these procedures in place."

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NOAA is the designated agency responsible for whales, seals and dolphins.

In addition to NOAA and the National Park Service, the stranding team has included staff from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the Virginia and North Carolina aquariums, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Duke University, North Carolina State University and the Coast Guard.

Most Park Service staff members are not qualified to do the work that NOAA biologists have handled, such as taking samples, Bogardus said. Training will be given next week for certification to do euthanization when needed.

"What most people don't realize is that when animals come in here, they are very sick. They are basically done," Bogardus said. "If they are pushed back in, they'll drown. Unfortunately, when an animal comes in here, the most humane thing to do is euthanize them."

Marine mammal strandings happen more often on the Cape Hatteras seashore's 70 miles of ocean shoreline than anywhere else along the North Carolina coast, said Laura Engleby, a NOAA biologist.

Over six years, there has been an average of 156 marine mammal strandings a year in North Carolina, the second highest in the southeast, behind Florida, she said. A mass stranding counts as a single stranding event.

From the Virginia line to the south end of Ocracoke, an average of 97 animals per year have stranded, not including healthy seals, Bogardus said.

Of them, about 20 percent are alive - which involves much more cost and time to take care of the animals, including transport and medical help.

"I can assure you that North Carolina will be an identified priority that we have adequate stranding coverage," Engleby said. "It's a very important coastline as far as our stranding coverage."

Engleby said there is still one NOAA stranding coordinator in Beaufort who will be answering the stranding hot line until a line can be established on the Outer Banks. The hope, she said, is that the partners will be able to make a seamless transition as far as the public is concerned.

"We just are trying to work with them to ensure that they have the training and the expertise," Engleby said.

NOAA provides competitive grant funds to stranding networks but not to other federal agencies such as the Park Service or to nonprofits such as the volunteer Network for Endangered Sea Turtles.

The seashore's deputy superintendent, Darrell Echols, said the Park Service has applied for Centennial Initiative funds to train and equip stranding coordinators in Cape Hatteras.

"We're pursuing any funding opportunities that we can to help create this coordinated response effort," Echols said.

Karen Clark, education specialist with the state Wildlife Resources Commission, said her Outer Banks office expects to continue to be the first responder while the network is regrouping.

Clark has been working closely with Bogardus and North Carolina Aquariums staff on stranding issues.

It has not been decided who will answer the hot line, Clark said, or who will manage the archives. But NOAA's coordination was the most critical aspect of the network that will be missed.

"There's great concern about it," Clark said. "The network is going to have to come up with some creative ways to fill this hole."

 Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com