CSI: Cetacean Stranding Investigations

  I am involved in the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group's stranding scheme where as much information as possible is gathered from the carcass of a Cetacean. Now what does this really mean?

Common Dolphin stranded at Rossbeigh

Well the basis of this scheme revolves around most crucially obtaining a skin sample from a fresh animal which is sliced approximately into two thin 5mm long and 1mm wide strips without any blubber attached with a disposable scalpel to ensure that it can fit into a minute vial filled with ethanol to preserve the specimen. This sample is then accompanied by a card displaying relevant information on the samples date of collection,location along with its own unique code to keep track of every individual sample. The sample is then packed into a padded (pre-paid) envelope and sent directly to the Natural History Museum on Merrion Street in Dublin and placed in the national Cetacean genetic tissue bank which is run by the IWDG so that a substantial genetic collection of Ireland's Cetaceans is readily available to researchers in the future likelihood that a wide spread research project will be under taken in the coming years.

Skin sample taken from the above Common Dolphin

 Other than taking a skin sample (where possible) I also measure the animal from the tip of its lower jaw to the tip of its tail fluke and also the animals girth/waistline which tells us whether the animal was fully mature and roughly if it was at a healthy weight and not malnourished which may signal that there were some issues limiting the animals capacity to feed it self which could have eventually had led to its death, now if a Cetacean does not feed it also does not take in water which is ironic for an animal that spends its entire life in a weightless world of water so the only way for the animal to stay hydrated is to feed  so if this is diminished in any way it can be detrimental to  the animals health.

Harbour Porpoise skin sample ready to go.

 Now this abnormality may come about for a number of reasons, firstly the animal may have been too old and weak to catch prey, it may have been sick and injured either by one another or due to an altercation with man be it directly in the form of a collision with a boat or indirectly with fishing gear among many other factors which many have led to any one of the deaths of such animals that end up stranded along the counties coast be it already dead or still alive these issues are only theories unless proven beyond doubt but this highlights just how important this stranding scheme is even though it only covers very minute, specific data there is always room for more direct actions if more funding was made available such important initiatives.