{"id":33592,"date":"2021-06-02T13:12:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T17:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=33592"},"modified":"2021-06-02T13:24:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T17:24:07","slug":"marine-wildlife-making-their-return-to-maryland-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/06\/02\/marine-wildlife-making-their-return-to-maryland-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Wildlife Making Their Return to Maryland Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Waterway Users Urged to Report Summer Aquatic Visitors<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 365px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8746\/17086280452_f7318f9acd.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of dolphins diving in the water\" width=\"355\" height=\"252\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Mark Odell\/Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As summer approaches, marine wildlife \u2014 dolphins, manatees, sea turtles, whales, and others \u2013 are making their seasonal return to the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries, as well as the Atlantic coastal bays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reminds anyone who has seen either a marine mammal or sea turtle in Maryland waters to report it to the state <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/fisheries\/Pages\/oxford\/stranding.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at 800-628-9944. Anglers, boaters, and beachgoers should especially be on the lookout for these creatures.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to calling the program hotline, anyone who encounters a stranded marine mammal, alive or dead, should follow these steps if possible:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do not touch the animal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Record your location using latitude and longitude, street address, and\/or description with landmarks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Estimate and record the length, size, color, noticeable body parts, and movements (if alive).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take photos of the animal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stand by the animal at a safe distance until stranding staff are able to reach you.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Maryland\u2019s most common visitors are bottlenose dolphins and loggerhead sea turtles, more than 25 other marine mammals and four species of sea turtles have been recorded in state waters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The department\u2019s Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding program works in conjunction with the National Aquarium in responding to reports of marine animals throughout Maryland\u2019s waters and coastlines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marine mammals are specifically protected by federal law, the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In addition, sea turtles and whales are both protected under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to harass, capture, or collect these marine species, alive or dead, including their bones or any body parts.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Waterway Users Urged to Report Summer Aquatic Visitors As summer approaches, marine wildlife \u2014 dolphins, manatees, sea turtles, whales, and others \u2013 are making their seasonal return to the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries, as well as the Atlantic coastal bays.\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Natural Resources reminds anyone who has seen either a<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/06\/02\/marine-wildlife-making-their-return-to-maryland-waters\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,3171,11],"tags":[3197,3339,3343,3335,4980,3341],"class_list":["post-33592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-boating","category-fisheries","tag-boating","tag-dolphins","tag-manatees","tag-marine-mammal-and-sea-turtle-stranding-program","tag-sea-turtle","tag-whales"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33599,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33592\/revisions\/33599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}