The puerto rico department of natural and environmental resources is the state agency with the mandate to protect and conserve the natural resources of the island

In 2006, the agency established the marine mammal rescue program (mmrp) with the purpose or coordinating the response to all issues related to marine mammals around the island and advise the agency on emerging threats. The mmrp also provides recommendations on conservation measures.to facilitate the response, the program operates with two stranding coordinators, one on the west and one on the north. This provides for one coordinator to be always available for any given situation. The main operation office and storage room is at the fisheries research laboratory (FRL) on the west coast. The west indian manatee is the marine mammal species that most frequently strand, with an average of 11 cases addressed annually. Most of the shoreline in puerto rico does not have easy access, which complicates often the logistics for a necropsy. The length of time added by having access to the carcass and getting trained staff to perform the necropsy to the site decreases the possibilities of obtaining samples that could provide adequate information through the histopathology analysis. This project seeks to provide training to additional staff and acquire equipment that will facilitate the response. For many years the mmrp has been collecting the ear bones of the west indian manatees stranded dead to obtain age information. This age data provides crucial information for population models, life history understanding and management decisions. In florida, age estimates for population parameters have been calculated for manatees using growth layer groups in the ear bone (marmontel ET AL. 1996, lonati ET AL. 2019, 2021). The mmrp tried to establish collaborations or contract agreements to analyze the collected ear bones from puerto rico. Unfortunately, the administrative and financial processes within the different entities made this impossible. Nowadays, processing ear bones is no longer a priority for agencies managing the florida manatee but is still unknown and needed for the manatee population in puerto rico. We are confident that with the required equipment IT is an analysis that we could do at the FRL, with the support of staff expert in histotechnology. This proposal is applying for category b, as described in the FOA, seeking support for the marine mammal stranding efforts in puerto rico. In particular, we are aiming towards the funding priorities established for the west indian manatee (trichechus manatus manatus). Identified priorities are:1. Enhance capability of stranding response, including training, planning, outreach, and improvement of equipment and resource availability 2. Increase response efforts for manatees in distress in areas of low rescue capacity, including training, equipment and resource availability 3. Improve existing facilities for necropsies 4. Improve collection and archiving of specimens to support studies of life history parameters, threats and overall population health