This last presentation is something that I don't know a lot about, so it was really cool to learn some from it. So here is Denise Boyd. She just talked about documenting signs of sharp trauma in Cetaceans and Sirenians. Thank you for being here.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Um, yep. My name is Denise Boyd. I work for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. I'm in their wildlife research institute division. The research section in marine mammals. And my job is specific to response to sinrenians, which serve manatees and cetaceans, which are dolphins and whales in southwest Florida. Those are my primary job duties and the majority of the animals we encounter are deceased. And so we evaluate these animals as they come in and conduct an animal autopsy, which is called a necropsy. And we do as part of that, an external examination and we document any wounds or lesions and the way they present and the orientation of their pre presentation. And when animals have been negatively impacted, specifically marine mammals, if they're impacted by a vessel, it will leave a very distinct series of wounds or injuries on an animal's back or its skin. And so what I talked about today is just how to document, photograph, and report out on those types of injuries. So for example, a propeller will make a series of linear to slightly curved lacerations in an order or a series. They're roughly equidistant apart, so they measure like two centimeters apart consistently. And you'll record and photograph and measure those wounds, and then you look internally and document any underlying injuries. So often associated with animals that have been impacted by a vessel while alive, when you look underneath those wounds you'll find blood clots, torn in hemorrhagic muscle. You'll actually see the muscles will curl once they're torn or lacerated by say a, a boat propeller. And so I presented on that, that some of those vessel or watercraft parts that project out like a propeller, a boat shaft, a scag, a rudder, can cause sharp trauma on a marine mammal. That there's also the possibility that they're impacted by blunt forces. So the underside of the boat, which is the hull at the front, it's the bow or the back, it's the stern. The broad impact and blunt force at a vessel that's going very fast can also cause significant damage without any sharp trauma. It would be all blunt. So that has the capacity, specifically in manatees, to fracture ribs. Those ribs can then be pushed internally and damage a lung and damage an abdomen and cause a lot of internal organ damage. And so they may look fine on the surface. They may have just a small scrape or superficial injury, but all of the force of the blunt hull impact has been translated deeper into the animal, and you'll see these injuries inside that are consistent with a vessel interaction. So that's mostly what I talked about for today.

How can this information help us with preventing these injuries?

So in Florida specifically, there are speed zones that are set for in areas where manatees are in high numbers. And so boaters have to go at slower speeds. So they do not impact those. So if we have animals that are found repeatedly in an area that should be slow speed zone, we can make recommendations to law enforcement that maybe the area is not seeing a high level of compliance with those speed zones. So it's important for us to document these injuries and where the animals are coming in that present with those types of injuries. Or conversely, if we have an area that we're seeing a lot of mortality and there isn't a speed zone in place, should we make a recommendation to put one in? So it's primarily to, to help keep the number of animals that are dying due to these, uh, interactions lower.

Excellent. Well, this has been super informational and educational, so thank you so much for being here, and thank you for what you do.

All right. Thank you.