The order Cetacea contains several species that have special appeal to the public.
Charismatic species, such as the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), attract great interest in their welfare, research, and conservation. Many zoos
and oceanaria now operate highly sophisticated preventative medicine programs and
promote conservation and rescue of stranded animals. Increasing morbidity and mortality
among cetaceans in the wild are causes for concern, however. Within their niche, free-ranging
bottlenose dolphins are among those cetaceans that are at the top of the marine food
chain. In this apex position, they are increasingly exposed to high levels of anthropogenic
toxins (eg, polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs]) in the water as well as the effect of
climate change, dwindling fish stocks, and harmful algal blooms [
1
,
2
,
3
]. In addition, underwater testing of advanced remote detection sonar has recently
been thought to be associated with mass mortality events in the Canary Islands [
[4]
]. Further, mass mortality has accompanied the emergence of porpoise and dolphin morbilliviruses
[
[5]
]. Even more recently, stranded bottlenose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon in Florida
have shown evidence of a suite of pathologically significant lesions [
6
,
7
].To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Footnotes
This article was funded by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and the Protect Wild Dolphins License Plate Fund.
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
