ghting report.]

[Footnote 16: Describe any tags seen (see Appendix A) and state their
size, shape, color, and position on the animal's body and any symbols or
numbers they contain.]

APPENDIX C

STRANDED WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND PORPOISES

With a Key to the Identification of Stranded Cetaceans of the Western
North Atlantic

Stranded Animals

As we discussed briefly in the introduction to this guide, whales,
dolphins, and porpoises sometimes "strand" or "beach" themselves,
individually or in entire herds, for a complex of still incompletely
understood reasons. Though the reasons suggested for these strandings
appear almost as numerous as the strandings themselves, two tenable
generalizations have recently been proposed.

Strandings of lone individuals usually involve an animal which is sick
or injured. Mass strandings, involving from several to several hundred
individuals, appear to be far more complex and may result from fear
reactions, from extremely bad weather conditions, from herd-wide disease
conditions, or from failure of the echolocation system due to
physiological problems or environmental conditions which combine to
reduce its effectiveness, to mention only a few.

Whatever their causes, however, cetacean strandings usually attract
crowds and elicit much public interest and sympathy. There are
frequently attempts to save the lives of the animals involved.

Individually stranded cetaceans rarely survive, even if they are found
soon after stranding and transported to adequate holding facilities.
This does not mean that every attempt should not be made to save them.

In mass strandings, some individuals may be entirely healthy, and if
they are found soon enough after stranding, properly protected and
transported, and correctly cared for in the initial few days after
collection, they may survive in captivity. Attempts to rescue all the
animals in a mass stranding by towing them out to sea have almost always
been frustrating because the animals usually swim repeatedly back onto
the beach.

If you discover a stranding and before you become involved in an attempt
to save a live stranded animal or to collect data from a dead one, you
should be aware of the following:

MARINE MAMMALS ARE CURRENTLY PROTECTED BY LAW. Under provisions of the
Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, it is unlawful for persons without
a permit to handle, harass, or possess any marine mammal. It is within
the authority of S