Moore M, Andrews R,
Austin T, Bailey J, Costidis A, George C, Jackson K, Pitchford
T, Landry S,
Ligon A, McLellan W, Morin D, Smith J, Rotstein D, Rowles T,
Slay C, Walsh M
(2012) Rope trauma, sedation, disentanglement, and
monitoring-tag associated
lesions in a terminally entangled North Atlantic right whale
(Eubalaena
glacialis). Marine Mammal Science
DOI:
10.1111/j.1748-7692.2012.00591.x
A chronically entangled North Atlantic right whale, with consequent
emaciation
was sedated, disentangled to the extent possible, administered
antibiotics,
and satellite tag tracked for six subsequent days. It was found dead
11 d after the
tag ceased transmission. Chronic constrictive deep rope lacerations
and emaciation
were found to be the proximate cause of death, which may have
ultimately
involved shark predation. A broadhead cutter and a spring-loaded
knife used for
disentanglement were found to induce moderate wounds to the skin and
blubber.
The telemetry tag, with two barbed shafts partially penetrating the
blubber was shed,
leaving barbs embedded with localized histological reaction. One of
four
darts administered shed the barrel, but the needle was found
postmortem in the
whale with an 80º bend at the blubber-muscle interface. This bend
occurred due to
epaxial muscle movement relative to the overlying blubber, with
resultant necrosis
and cavitation of underlying muscle. This suggests that rigid,
implanted devices
that span the cetacean blubber muscle interface, where the muscle
moves relative
to the blubber, could have secondary health impacts. Thus we
encourage efforts to
develop new tag telemetry systems that do not penetrate the
subdermal sheath,
but still remain attached for many months.
--
Michael Moore
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
508 289 3228