Volunteers and scientists necropsy and take tissue samples from dead marine mammals that wash ashore to determine a cause of death. Worthy said studying dead marine mammals can teach scientists about their anatomy, ecology, natural history, diseases and parasites that infect them, and the effects of pollutants. We can learn a lot about their ecology and natural history, even from carcasses. Dan Engelhaupt, coordinator of the network's Galveston region, said scientists can learn a lot from marine mammals. A lot of the diseases they get, humans get as well.
Marine mammals die of everything from poisons in their blood to gunshot wounds.
By learning more about the biology of these marine mammals, he said, researchers can learn how to better protect them and how to better care for those animals in captivity. Scientists can also learn a lot from the live mammals they rescue. Often, these rescued animals attract a lot of attention, attention the network uses to educate the public about marine mammals. In cases where one or two animals beach, or strand, themselves, Engelhaupt said 99 percent of the time the animal is ill, and people should not try to push the animal back out into the water. By pushing the animals back, he said, it's a death sentence because the current drags them out and deposits them back onshore farther down the beach.