A harbor porpoise stranded on March 20, 2003, at Avon, N.C. At the time of stranding, the young male porpoise was 46 inches long, and weighed less than 30 pounds. A healthy porpoise of that length should weigh at least 70 pounds.
Line marks on his body indicated that he may have been entangled in some sort of fishing gear.
Networking for Survival
Staff and volunteers from three facilities in the Stranding Network dedicated more than 20,000 hours to the care of this animal, a true example of outstanding teamwork.
The Virginia Marine Science Museum Stranding Center team brought the porpoise to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for rehabilitation, where the animal spent seven months.
The porpoise was then transferred to the Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center (MARC) at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, where it spent three months in a cold, natural seawater facility.
Release
Once ready for release, members of MARP drove to Maine to join MARC in releasing "Gus," as the porpoise was called, into 40-degree-Farenheit water and 21-degree-Farenheit air—with a wind chill of 11 degrees!
Porpoises are cold-water animals, common to the Gulf of Maine and other cold-water regions, where water temperature can be as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gus was transported out to sea in a specially designed insulated cetacean carrier. At release, he measured 50 inches and weighed a whopping winter weight of 90 pounds.
With assistance from marine mammal experts Greg Early and Andrew Westgate, the porpoise was fitted with a radio tag to track its movements after release. In the three months following release, the animal moved southward, returning to coastal waters not far from the original stranding location.
Volunteers and interested parties followed Gus' movements on the Whalenet web site. The last transmissions from the tag came on March 23, 2004, and, according to Early, "Gus' behavior seems to be quite promising." There is a very strong chance that he is still out there and thriving.
