CSS employee owner and Marine Mammal Microplastic Specialist supporting NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science assists the South Carolina Marine Mammal Stranding Network in responding to dead marine mammals when they strand on beaches or estuaries throughout South Carolina. This is work is critical for human and environmental health because it provides invaluable samples which allow scientists to
- better understand ecosystem conditions since marine mammals are important indicators of the health of their environment,
- gain insight to the health of the marine mammal community,
- assume potential impacts for humans living in the coastal zone.
In addition, removing marine mammal carcasses from public spaces helps avoid potential disease transfer to humans.
The Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network (LMMN) is the current NOAA Fisheries permit holder—a permit required by the Marine Mammals Protection and Endangered Species Act for research including collecting samples for biopsies. The organization currently has only one staff member dedicated to these responses. Since responding to stranded, deceased marine mammals is not safe or possible to do alone, CSS staff supporting NCCOS frequently assist with field responses, conducting necropsies (i.e. animal autopsies), and sample collection.
Following sample collection, the CSS Marine Mammal Microplastic Specialist is specifically responsible for the gastrointestinal assessment. Responsibilities for this task include dissecting and analyzing the stomach and entire intestinal tracts of stranded marine mammals. This assessment helps provide information regarding the animal’s recent diet and is one of the final determinants of whether an animal was affected by human interaction, specifically by ingesting microplastics. This data is used by LMMN, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, and NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.
See More CSS Insights
Advancing Severe Weather Predictions with Artificial Intelligence
As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies evolve in Earth sciences, CSS employee owners (formerly Riverside staff) are growing our expertise in this field. CSS employee owners are advancing technologies for our client, NOAA’s Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR). Our staff have developed a framework, exploiting modern AI/ML techniques, to rapidly…
Assessing Contamination in Abandoned Mines
CSS supports the Environmental Protection Agency with assessing contamination within abandoned mines. There are thousands of abandoned mines throughout the western United States. Many of these mines are leaching heavy metals into nearby streams or have contaminated soils causing vegetation die off. CSS employee owners conduct field work to assess the extent of this contamination.…
Standard Guidelines for Evaluating Construction Safety and Health
Safety is of the utmost importance in new construction or renovations. CSS employee owners, supporting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) BaseLINE program helped develop and implement a proactive approach to evaluating safety and health conditions in newly constructed and renovated spaces before occupancy. The NIH BaseLINE program, Building Assessment of Safety Elements (Base) Lighting, Indoor air quality, Noise, Ergonomics (LINE), is a systematic readiness and safety assessment survey used for newly…