ENSTU 300: Critical Thinking & Communication in Environmental Studies

Temporary Marine captivity policy

Bryan Jung, Environmental Studies Program, California State University Monterey Bay

From left to right: Courtesy of Brieanna Basegio, CSL_Cronutt_13577_photo © The Marine Mammal
Center

Temporary marine captivity is a tool that
many different scientists use to study these
majestic creatures. Due to their highly
inaccessible climate that they live in, studies
are harder to conduct in terms of long term
research.( Mellish 2006) Keeping these
marine mammals in short term captivity
does comes with its own set of problems
such as space and the amount of fish that is
needed to feed these hungry animals,
however these can outweigh the cost of
having mammals that research projects can
be done on. Different policies affect
different things and when talking about
marine mammals, there are many rules and
regulations that are currently in effect to
protect the balance of nature along with the
balance of human interaction with these wild
animals.
There are three main policy options that we
should look into. One, not doing any marine
mammal rehab and leaving them be out in
the wild, two, follow the existing protocols
that we currently have to rescue, rehabilitate,
and release these wild mammals or three,
change the protocols that we have to be
more efficient in the way that these marine
mammals are treated. These policies are
outlined in figure 2 below .
Criteria Don’t Follow Improve
Interfere existing protocol
protocol
cost (+) (+) (+/-)

Policy Options
Individual (-/+) (+) (+)
Marine
Mammal
survival
Ecosystem (+) (+/-) (-)
health
Policy Option 1: Don’t interfere with nature.
Option 1 don’t interfere with mother nature
and let it takes its course. This policy option
is the cheapest option out there in terms of
cost. Without taking in these sick and
injured marine mammals there is no cost
associated with them. Covering the cost of
medications and food for them is very
expensive and funding is hard to come by
for these organizations as many are
nonprofits and rely on donations from the
general public. Without picking these
animals up, many people think that the
animals may not survive due to the diseases
that they have, however there has been cases
where marine mammals have been bitten by
sharks and have healed completely fine
without human intervention as these are
really resilient animals.
Animals within the environment are suited
to fit within their environment. Taking the
sick and injured animals out of the
environment can hurt the population pool as
when they are sick and injured, this is a way
of mother nature is using to control the
population pool. Since these animals are
sick or injured, they spend most of their
energy on trying to heal themselves and not
other things such as mating to have off
spring.
Policy Option 2: Use current protocols
2
Option 2 seems like a viable option, what
we are currently doing we know it works.
The cost associated with rescue
rehabilitating and releasing animals is
roughly 10 dollars a day per animal (North
Coast Marine Mammal Center). This doesn’t
seem like it is a lot but when added together
the amount of days the animal is spent at the
center and if special care is needed the price
can go up. However, with the current
protocols we have, many of the different
organizations in the marine mammal
stranding network can take care of these sick
and injured animals. Many of these
organizations are 501 C (3) organizations
and rely on the public to donate to their
cause. The health of the individual marine
mammal also benefits from this policy
option. Being sick and or injured, these
animals are given a second chance at life
when they are brought into these centers.
Caring for different marine mammals can
also help with the population of that species.
The Steller Sea Lion and the Guadalupe Fur
seals are listed as threatened under the
endangered species act while the Northern
Fur seal is under depleted in the Marine
Mammal Protection act (North Coast Marine
Mammal Center). By taking care of these
animals all the centers in the marine
mammal stranding network are trying to
make the population bounce back just like
we did with the Southern Sea Otters.
However, there is also a drawback on
rescuing these animals and is that we are
changing the way mother nature wants
things to happen. Mother nature always does
things for a reason, and that is usually to
keep the population under control. Adding
these animals that might have died on their
own back into the population pool can affect
the current population. These animals have
been given a boost in terms of health as they
have received medications for treatments of
disease that they had and been fattened up in
terms of putting on weight. This can be an
unfair advantage to the animals that are
already out in the wild.
Policy Option 3: Change current protocols
As we can see current protocols are
expensive and the cost of running a
rehabilitation center can quickly add up.
With little to no actual funding, and relying
on donations, many of the centers have a
limited amount of full-time staff on hand
and rely on volunteers. If we improve the
protocol, this might be beneficial or not.
Reducing the operating cost by buying
cheaper materials is something that can be
investigated. For example, the Marine
Mammal Center makes their own electrolyte
solution out of water and household objects
while the Pacific Marine Mammal Center
based out of Laguna Beach uses unflavored
Pedialyte for their electrolyte solution. Just
this simple protocol change can save the
Pacific Marine Mammal Center some
money as the supplies that are used are not
expensive at all. With less money spent on
supplies also, there is more money to be
spent elsewhere that can improve the
center’s efficiency and the individual animal
health.
But with positives comes negatives; with
stronger individuals going back into the
environment we as humans might be
interfering with nature a bit too much and
sometimes should take a step back and look
at the bigger picture instead of what is in
front of us right now.
Recommendation
The first policy option focused more on the
general idea of marine mammal rehab and
how it is affecting the environment, but the
3
second and third options are more focused
on the cost of running the centers. Funding
is a big part of all these centers and I think a
combination of policy option two and policy
option three should be put into place. Saving
some cost here and there can-do wonders in
the long run as everything slowly adds up.
Animal welfare and their terms of survival
in the wild is something that should be taken
into consideration before picking up these
animals. Depending on many different
factors that play in, such as if the animal
would be disturbed and interacted with
humans or dogs on the beach, or if the
animal is on the endangered of threatened
list, shall one think about picking it up and
bringing it back to a center. Marine
mammals are resilient and can bounce back
from what looks to be a nasty wound or a
disease that they have. There is a fine line
that we walk everyday between mother
nature and helping these animals out.
Literature Cited
Fun Facts. (2012, April 12). Retrieved
from
https://www.northcoastmmc.org/education/fun-
facts/
Mellish, J. E., Calkins, D. G., Christen, D. R.,
Horning, M., Rea, L. D., & Atkinson, S. K.
(2006). Temporary Captivity as a Research
Tool: Comprehensive Study of Wild Pinnipeds
Under Controlled Conditions. Aquatic
Mammals,32(1), 58-65.
doi:10.1578/am.32.1.2006.58
Rescue. (2018, February 23). Retrieved from
https://www.northcoastmmc.org/rehabilitation/re
scue/
The Marine Mammal Center. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/Get-
Involved/give/