Seal Necropsy · 31 July 2007, 00:26 by Julie Loyd
A few locals have been going to watch and assist as Dr. Joe Gaydos does marine mammal necropsies at Friday Harbor Labs.
Most of the animals are emaciated seal pups but now and then something like a harbor porpoise comes along. Joe slices and dices and keeps up a running commentary. Helpers set up the dissecting tools, label things, and put samples in baggies to be sent to labs.
The purpose of the necropsies is to get an idea of the overall health of the Salish Sea. Mammals store toxins in their blubber, so analysis gives a picture of which ones are present. Some seal diseases can affect humans or whales, and vice versa.
In today’s conversation, a visitor said that in the old days, most dead seals he came across had been gaffed by fishermen. Now, the seal population is probably at the maximum that the ecosystem can handle, and so deaths by starvation are inevitable.
Today Joe necropsied three seal pups, as he did last week. Whatever they actually died of, they were also emaciated.
commenting closed for this article
07.jul.27 Cowlitz Beach Seine with Tina and Russel Exciting Fish Seine with Tina August 13, 2007