Bubbles in live-stranded dolphins
Date
2011-10-12Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4858As published
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1754DOI
10.1098/rspb.2011.1754Abstract
Bubbles in supersaturated tissues and blood occur in beaked whales stranded near sonar exercises, and post-mortem in dolphins bycaught at depth and then hauled to the surface. To evaluate live dolphins for bubbles, liver, kidneys, eyes and blubber–muscle interface of live-stranded and capture-release dolphins were scanned with B-mode ultrasound. Gas was identified in kidneys of 21 of 22 live-stranded dolphins and in the hepatic portal vasculature of 2 of 22. Nine then died or were euthanized and bubble presence corroborated by computer tomography and necropsy, 13 were released of which all but two did not re-strand. Bubbles were not detected in 20 live wild dolphins examined during health assessments in shallow water. Off-gassing of supersaturated blood and tissues was the most probable origin for the gas bubbles. In contrast to marine mammals repeatedly diving in the wild, stranded animals are unable to recompress by diving, and thus may retain bubbles. Since the majority of beached dolphins released did not re-strand it also suggests that minor bubble formation is tolerated and will not lead to clinically significant decompression sickness.
Description
© The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B : Biological Sciences 279 (2012): 1396-1404, doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1754.
Collections
Suggested Citation
Proceedings of the Royal Society B : Biological Sciences 279 (2012): 1396-1404The following license files are associated with this item:
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution 3.0 Unported
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Discrimination between bycatch and other causes of cetacean and pinniped stranding
(Inter-Research, 2018-01-31)The challenge of identifying cause of death in discarded bycaught marine mammals stems from a combination of the non-specific nature of the lesions of drowning, the complex physiologic adaptations unique to breath-holding ... -
Costridium perfringens septicemia in a long-beaked common dolphin Delphinus capensis : an etiology of gas bubble accumulation in cetaceans
(Inter-Research, 2014-10-16)An adult female long-beaked common dolphin Delphinus capensis live-stranded in La Jolla, California, USA, on July 30, 2012 and subsequently died on the beach. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed gas ... -
Mass Marine Mammal Stranding Response
(2017-03-14)This is a primer on mass cetacean strandings and provides an overview of the various factors to be considered in dealing with mass-stranded animals.
