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. Engelhaupt said people also need to know that they can't just go out and swim with the dolphins or feed them because that will only bring the animals in closer to humans, and that's something that would eventually end up hurting marine mammals. A lot of people don't realize they are protected.