Our goals are to: 1) support comprehensive response to dead marine mammals in our stranding area, provide diagnostic and archival sampling of code 2 and code 3 dead cetaceans and pinnipeds (with…

This $200,107 Project Grant award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Marine Mammal Data Program (CFDA 11.439) will support Portland State University's efforts to: 1) Provide comprehensive response, diagnostic analysis, and archival sampling of dead marine mammals in their stranding area to document cause of death and contribute to regional and national databases; 2) Conduct outreach and education on stranding network activities and issues; 3) Document live entangled pinnipeds and contribute to West Coast region databases; and 4) Work with local pathology labs to detect disease in marine mammals. The award will fund these activities from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025.

Our goals are to: 1) support comprehensive response to dead marine mammals in our stranding area, provide diagnostic and archival sampling of code 2 and code 3 dead cetaceans and pinnipeds (with archival sampling of code 4 animals when possible) to document cause of death, contribute to regional and national databases and to health map when IT becomes available, continue UME and post-UME monitoring, provide baseline information on human interactions and fisheries interactions and expand our capacity to analyze our collected data (NFP 1A, wcrp i, II, v); 2) concentrate on outreach and education about stranding network activities and issues throughout our region (NFP 1B, wcrp i, IV), 3) document live entangled pinnipeds and contribute to the west coast region tag and flipper tags databases (wcrp II, IX) and 4) work with local pathology labs to detect disease in marine mammals in our stranding area (wcrp v).