Humans are responsible for more than half of the ocean’s animal strandings.
- Boat propellers cut animals as they surface for air.
- Fishing lines and nets entangle mammals, leading to suffocation beneath the water or injuries as they fight for freedom.
- Neglect of laws and safety precautions by boaters and workers leads to animal injuries and the degradation of their environments.
- And while accidents happen, it is a sad fact that humans sometimes cut, injure, and kill the animals they encounter.
Humans on land share the responsibility.
- Oil, fertilizer, and pollutants that spill on the highways or are disposed of improperly wash into the Chesapeake Bay and out to sea, harming animals and altering the chain of marine life.
- Trash, from cigarette butts to aluminum cans to rubber balloons, eventually find their way to the oceans, where animals mistake them for food and suffocate or become ill. Plastics such as six-pack rings can entangle marine mammals.
What You Can Do
Organizations like MARP are working around the clock, but, sadly, very few mammals that strand themselves onshore will survive beyond the first few days. Prevention is the best medicine.
You can do more for the health of marine mammals than everything that MARP has or ever will accomplish through simple daily activities:
- Be responsible with your litter: recycle and dispose of trash properly, including fishing line and six-pack rings.
- Donate goods, services, and funds to the Aquarium to help with the high costs involved in rehabilitating these animals.
- Participate in beach, stream, and roadside cleanups, even if it’s just one day a year. Sign up for one of the Aquarium's conservation events.
- Keep your distance when you come in contact with a marine animal. They are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which states that humans must remain 100 yards away. If the animal appears injured, notify the appropriate authorities: the U.S. Coast Guard, your local aquarium, or fire or police departments.
» Get more tips for what you can do to make the oceans a safer place for animals here.
