Dear MARMAMers, My co-authors and I are pleased to announce our recent publication in the journal Royal Society Open Science which has identified, via expert opinion, valuable and practical indicators for assessing stranded cetacean welfare and survival likelihood. Boys, R.M.; Beausoleil, N.J.; Pawley, M.D.M.; Littlewood, K.E.; Betty, E.L.; Stockin, K.A. Identification of potential welfare and survival indicators for stranded cetaceans through international, interdisciplinary expert opinion. Royal Society Open Science 2022, 9: 220646. Abstract: Management of live cetacean strandings generally focuses on refloating animals, yet there is a lack of scientific data to inform decision-making. Valid indicators that are practical to measure are needed to assess welfare status and survival likelihood for stranded cetaceans. The Delphi method was applied to gather international and interdisciplinary expert opinion to provide face validity to potential indicators of stranded cetacean welfare and survival likelihood. Two online questionnaires were conducted. In the first questionnaire these experts identified potential indicators of stranded cetacean welfare and survival likelihood. These indicators were subsequently scored by the same experts in questionnaire two, based on their value for assessing welfare/survival likelihood and being practical to measure. Indicators considered valuable and practical for assessing welfare and survival likelihood at strandings included animal-based indices of body and skin condition, signs of physical trauma, respiration rate and various behaviours. Resource-/management-based indicators related mainly to human intervention and should be correlated with animal-based indices to provide relevant evaluations. Importantly, inextricable links between welfare and survival for stranded cetaceans are emphasized, with 90% of indicators being similar for both. Investigations into these indicators should be conducted to develop a practical, science-based assessment framework to inform decision-making during stranding events. The paper is freely available open access here: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220646 Please do contact me if you have any questions. Thank you very much, Rebecca On behalf of all the co-authors ------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca M Boys Marine Biologist PhD Student Cetacean Ecology Research Group School of Natural Sciences Massey University Auckland New Zealand [cid:456f783e-547f-42ca-b1a9-b15890d05bc5]<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca_Boys> [cid:f47b6b6c-ca23-4872-99ad-facec477ac33] <https://scholar.google.co.nz/citations?hl=en&user=7rHpOpMAAAAJ> [cid:ca907944-972e-424c-a86c-b1cbf8df06e6] <https://twitter.com/RebeccaMBoys> [cid:0f5ff4d2-df99-460a-8cee-0aa202a9da18] <https://www.facebook.com/CetaceanEcologyOrg/?__xts__[0]=68.ARBKlWSLR-YC7KHNrW51KXYC8RqNWn5mtIpZGlhILsMi73gubXw7i0iNq-bMfLim8n7PnUX74GpGPXJqVJBIxqdfqVAvHxEd2En0qyW6mKYd9Q30p8kEFIBWKPFgrh4uEh6ISXy5ihiNbt8H1yEWprZQN4kZDRW8gPSk6TMiyNoF-uJ0o1uPoosrGMKBKGD8sc4K3SJPD2e-mWqDxZOc_aY670ngZVZm6YlpZzvKj_r_vh_aHHeSQuS7lgktu6h7HwKL_pEGombnfjc6z3ekwEF4Szn9mLA-y643tiUxNSQiFyiDyOzrVFqnT34Ctus2d0A9GXJMVBvnw7lCKoNnEq4kbA> [cid:33618201-7110-41a9-813d-e0046e1f00b2] <https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/explore/research/animal-veterinary/animal/marine/marine_home.cfm> [cid:74e34c07-2f5b-4a5c-85f1-bf7618d48f6d] www.cetaceanecology.org/<https://www.cetaceanecology.org/> Australia and New Zealand Student Chapter SMM Committee member European Cetacean Society National Contact Person for New Zealand
