Yara Bernaldo de Quirós, Meghan Hartwick, David S Rotstein, Michael M Garner, Andrea Bogomolni, William Greer, Misty E Niemeyer, Greg Early, Frederick Wenzel, Michael Moore
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 marine mammals, lack of case histories, and the diverse nature of fishing gear. While no pathognomonic lesions are recognized, signs of acute external entanglement, bulging or reddened eyes, recently ingested gastric contents, pulmonary changes, and decompression-associated gas bubbles have been identified in the condition of peracute underwater entrapment (PUE) syndrome in previous studies of marine mammals...
January 31, 2018: Diseases of Aquatic Organisms