{"id":41831,"date":"2024-06-24T14:14:31","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T18:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=41831"},"modified":"2024-06-24T14:17:50","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T18:17:50","slug":"summer-waterway-users-should-be-alert-for-marine-wildlife-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/06\/24\/summer-waterway-users-should-be-alert-for-marine-wildlife-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Waterway Users Should Be Alert for Marine Wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Public asked to report stranded marine mammals and sea turtles<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 494px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53613676187_4192aa296c.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of two dolphins swimming\" width=\"484\" height=\"323\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Paige Finley, submitted to the Maryland DNR Photo Contest.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Summer is here and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources would like to remind people that 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 Ocean and coastal bays.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anyone who sees a marine mammal or sea turtle in Maryland waters is urged 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 Response Program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at 800-628-9944. Anglers, boaters, and beachgoers should especially be on the lookout for stranded, dead, sick, injured, or entangled animals.<\/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 the 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\">If possible, remain by the animal at a safe distance until stranding staff 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 mammal species, and four species of sea turtles have been recorded in state waters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The department\u2019s Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Response program works cooperatively 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, touch, feed, capture, or collect these marine species, alive or dead, including any animal parts or skeletal remains or specimens.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public asked to report stranded marine mammals and sea turtles Summer is here and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources would like to remind people that 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<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/06\/24\/summer-waterway-users-should-be-alert-for-marine-wildlife-2\/\">&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":[957,3171,11,33,13],"tags":[3339,3335,5291,4801],"class_list":["post-41831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-boating","category-fisheries","category-the-bay","category-wildlife","tag-dolphins","tag-marine-mammal-and-sea-turtle-stranding-program","tag-sea-turtles","tag-stranding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41831","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=41831"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41834,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41831\/revisions\/41834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}