Compositional discrimination of decompression and decomposition gas bubbles in bycaught seals and dolphins

View/ Open
Date
2013-12-19Author
Bernaldo de Quirós, Yara
Concept link
Seewald, Jeffrey S.
Concept link
Sylva, Sean P.
Concept link
Greer, William
Concept link
Niemeyer, Misty E.
Concept link
Bogomolni, Andrea L.
Concept link
Moore, Michael J.
Concept link
Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/6404As published
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083994DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0083994Abstract
Gas bubbles in marine mammals entangled and drowned in gillnets have been previously described by computed tomography, gross examination and histopathology. The absence of bacteria or autolytic changes in the tissues of those animals suggested that the gas was produced peri- or post-mortem by a fast decompression, probably by quickly hauling animals entangled in the net at depth to the surface. Gas composition analysis and gas scoring are two new diagnostic tools available to distinguish gas embolisms from putrefaction gases. With this goal, these methods have been successfully applied to pathological studies of marine mammals. In this study, we characterized the flux and composition of the gas bubbles from bycaught marine mammals in anchored sink gillnets and bottom otter trawls. We compared these data with marine mammals stranded on Cape Cod, MA, USA. Fresh animals or with moderate decomposition (decomposition scores of 2 and 3) were prioritized. Results showed that bycaught animals presented with significantly higher gas scores than stranded animals. Gas composition analyses indicate that gas was formed by decompression, confirming the decompression hypothesis.
Description
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 8 (2013): e83994, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083994.
Collections
Suggested Citation
PLoS One 8 (2013): e83994The following license files are associated with this item: