Guidelines for the treatment of marine mammals in field research

Marine mammals are studied in the field in order to improve peoples’ understanding of their behavior, physiology, life history, and ecology. The level of scientific interest, whether motivated by conservation, economics, management, or scientific enquiry, continues to grow and this has led to the use of an increasingly broad and sophisticated suite of research tools which add to scientists’ capacity to collect novel data in the wild. Important results from research activities are published in internationally peer reviewed journals, such as Marine Mammal Science, and contribute to the international development of the science that underpins the conservation and management of marine mammals and the ecosystems to which they belong. Research on marine mammals, like that on other vertebrates, raises important issues of animal welfare and ethics, and, until recently, these issues have received insufficient holistic attention within the community of scientists who work with marine mammals. Scientists from many countries and cultures conduct research on marine mammals. Thus research is conducted within the context of a complex mixture of motivations, ethical values, and legislative controls. While this diversity influences any global discussion of marine mammal welfare and ethics, there remain some fundamental scientific and ethical tenets that span cultural and legal relativity. Those tenets form the basis of this document. The guidelines presented here are intended to reflect internationally acceptable scientifically valid approaches to the handling and treatment of marine mammals in field research; they are supported by the Society for Marine Mammalogy (hereafter referred to as “the Society” or “SMM”). The guidelines reflect the effort of the authors to represent the ethical standards of the international marine mammal scientific community and define the values that characterize researchers belonging to a responsible professional society. They provide an invaluable resource for Animal Ethics Committees throughout the world. In order to maintain focus and relevance the guidelines are a living document that will be regularly updated to incorporate the changing views and values of the Society as well as the technological and developmental advances we make. The guidelines are a demonstration that the Society is actively committed to the advancement of scientific ethics, and this should add to the confidence of the public and administrative authorities that research published by our members is conducted using “best practices” designed to maximize scientific quality while minimizing potential negative impacts to our study animals. The guidelines should supplement existing national or institutional requirements and guidelines. Although the guidelines focus primarily on the treatment and handling of marine mammals in the field, they are broadly applicable in principle to research procedures used on marine mammals in facilities as well. It is implicit in the guidelines that scientists conduct their field studies to maximize the quality and value of the data collected, and that “scientific merit” is addressed as projects are: (1) designed and planned within institutions (or by individuals), and (2) during the process of attracting funds, obtaining permits, and other resources necessary to support the project. It is also expected that scientific merit be thoughtfully balanced by the need to ensure the protection of the welfare of study animals and other components of their populations and ecosystems. The guidelines have been developed by the Society and are published annually in the Society's journal, Marine Mammal Science. The Society is the largest international association representing the marine mammal research community. An ad hoc working group consisting of ten members from eight countries was appointed by the Society Board to produce draft guidelines for consideration by the Board, after which it was brought forward to the full Society membership for a vote in December 2007. Membership to the Society assumes an endorsement of the Society's guidelines. Authors wishing to submit their work to Marine Mammal Science are expected to comply with the principles of the guidelines, and non-members contributing to the Journal are strongly urged to comply with the guidelines. Marine mammal research projects are scrutinized at many stages during the process of project development, grant application, and legal compliance in most countries. However, the mechanisms and nature of these assessments vary greatly. Legal compliance usually consists of two forms of oversight. In the first category, welfare and ethical concerns may be considered explicitly by animal-care and use or welfare and animal-ethics committees. These committees generally operate under national animal welfare legislation at an institutional level. They monitor the welfare of individual animals used in scientific studies, most commonly in relation to laboratory research or commercial food-production. Welfare issues relating to the scientific use of free-ranging species are often less well-represented in the relevant legislation, and marine mammal researchers may interact with committees that have vague and confusing approaches to assessing their work. Scientists are usually, but not always, required to obtain approval from their relevant institutional animal-care committee prior to conducting any animal studies. The second level of legal compliance relating to most marine mammal research is comprised of the various state or national level agencies that administer legislation and regulations related to marine mammals. Other acts that cover threatened species, protected areas, hunting regulations, and public health may also apply in some countries and circumstances. Recently, in some countries, ethical considerations of research have extended from individual animal welfare issues to environmental ethics, and in particular, the conduct of research in protected and environmentally sensitive areas. Marine mammal research often occurs in such areas (e.g., World Heritage Areas, Marine Parks, and Reserves) and such legislation adds a further layer of review for some field-based research. The goal of the current Society guidelines is to provide an international, ethical framework for marine mammal research, acknowledging that no single national legislative framework or institutional requirement can be applied to all research on all species in all areas. These guidelines assume that researchers will fully comply with the applicable national, regional, and local legal requirements including those of their institution and national government or of the government responsible for the animals used for the field research. It is beyond the role and capacity of the Society or the Editor(s) of Marine Mammal Science to verify or enforce compliance with legal obligations. It is, however, within the Society's interest to promote adherence to the principles of these Guidelines and ethical standards through reliance upon transparent self-regulation, authors submitting a manuscript to Marine Mammal Science will be asked to affirm that they have considered and upheld the ethical principles and guidelines of the Society, as outlined below. Researchers should ask questions that are substantive and interesting and then design and conduct studies that can reasonably address those questions, while minimizing potential negative impacts to the individual animal(s) used, the population to which the animals belong, and the ecosystem in which the study is conducted. Designing a field study requires many thoughtful decisions, including selection of animals, research techniques, timing and duration of the research, sample size, and statistical power desired from the results. Some decisions may have to be made without full knowledge of the potential impacts to the animals. Where uncertainty is great, investigators should undertake pilot studies prior to full research so that informed decisions can be made before larger numbers of animals are involved. For studies where the potential level of impact is expected to be significant, researchers should select species that are not at conservation risk and whose behavior best suits the research. This is particularly the case where novel equipment or tools are being tested, for which the potential level of impact might be consequential. Where threatened or endangered species are the subject of study, the work should improve or have the potential to improve, in some way, the conservation status of this species. For any species, the deciding question for investigators whose work could possibly negatively impact individuals or populations should be “do we really need to know this about this particular species?” The vulnerability of an animal to disturbance will often vary with its age, sex, reproductive status, social situation, and level of exposure to human activities. Researchers should strive to minimize the potential for disturbance by selecting animals that will be least affected by the disturbance, while still satisfying the requirements of the research design. In particular, researchers should minimize potential disruption of critical social bonds, particularly those of mothers and dependent young. Site selection and timing of research can dramatically affect the scale and nature of potential disturbance. Vulnerability to disturbance is often more acute during the breeding season, during some behavioral states or in certain habitat types (water depths, etc.). Within the constraints of the research, the timing and location of the work should be selected to minimize the potential for disturbance. Rigorous scientific design requires a sample size that provides sufficient statistical power to test the hypothesis at hand. If more than the required number of animals are used in a study, then some animals maybe unnecessarily disturbed or affected. If too few animals are used and a statistically meaningful result is not possible, then animals may be disturbed or affected without a defendable scientific outcome. Researchers should determine the appropriate number of animals required to achieve the desired level of statistical power and use the minimum number required to answer the questions posed by the research. Access to free-ranging marine mammals is often difficult and expensive and achieving an adequate sample size can be problematic. In such cases, researchers may face the choice of not conducting the study, or arguing a case for reduced statistical power by accepting a smaller sample size. The basis for such decisions should incorporate a balance of science, ethics, and logistics. Researchers studying marine mammals have an increasingly powerful and broad suite of tools and approaches available to them for their research. The techniques vary in the degree of invasiveness as well as in the types and quality of data they provide. For example, a researcher investigating blubber volume of a marine mammal can use a range of techniques including the full dissection of blubber from a carcass, ultrasonic fat measurement, measurement of electrical bio-impedance, or isotope dilution on restrained animals. The selection of some research methods may not directly affect the derived data, but may be relevant to the welfare of the research subject. When restraint is required for a procedure on a pinniped, for example, the investigator can choose among physical restraint, mild sedation accompanied by physical restraint, chemical restraint using intra-muscular anesthetics, or anesthesia using inhalation gas. Many factors affect a researcher's choice of field technique. These include the aims of the research, economics, logistics, availability of expertise, legal requirements, personal experience, and ethical standards. Researchers are encouraged to choose techniques that minimize potential impacts to or disturbance of the animals, while still delivering data sufficient to satisfy the aims of the research. Researchers should also maintain familiarity with the current scientific literature to ensure they are aware of the “state-of-the-art” research techniques that could provide good data, with minimal consequence to the animals. Most animal handling and sampling techniques conducted in the field with marine mammals require skill and experience, even for routine procedures such as restraint and blood collection. Inexperience in such techniques generally reduces the quality of data collected, may impinge on the welfare of the animal (e.g., increased handling times, injury, or death), increases the risk to handlers, and may also affect the outcome of the research (e.g., higher tag loss, unrepresentative data). Principal investigators should ensure that any activities that might affect animal welfare are directly supervised or conducted by personnel with sufficient experience to ensure the disturbance to the animal is minimized. A broad range of field procedures is discussed below. The intent of these guidelines is to help researchers select and update the most efficient and humane techniques for their studies and where possible to further improve the techniques. The general principles of minimizing duration and potential for negative effects apply to all procedures. Once a researcher has become comfortable with the use of a particular procedure that works well, there is an inevitable inertia to changing to new techniques. By keeping these guidelines updated and current, Society members are encouraged to continually assess their techniques against those in the guidelines and to routinely incorporate changes and improvements where appropriate. Observational (non-contact) studies of marine mammals are not assessed by all animal care committees, as they may not be regarded as potentially impinging on animal welfare. However, research that uses procedures such as prolonged boat-based focal-follow techniques or photo-identification techniques have the capacity to cause disturbance and change in animal behavior and may, therefore, have some impacts. Such effects are difficult to quantify, but researchers are encouraged to consider the potential effects of such chronic, low-grade, or cumulative disturbance on their research subjects. The collection of marine mammals can be dangerous to both the animal and researcher. The published literature is regularly updated with new and improved collection techniques. It is in the interest of the researcher to ensure that the impact of any collection is minimized, thus ensuring the animal is released in good condition and that samples and data collected are representative. On land, small marine mammals, such as some otariid and phocid pups, can be collected reasonably safely by hand by experienced researchers, although risks of injury to animals and handlers remain. For medium-sized pinnipeds collections are generally undertaken with hand-held hoop nets, or less commonly with throw nets. Nets should be clean, non-abrasive, and minimize the risk of injury, particularly to the animal's eyes and teeth. 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This procedure is and the that apply internationally vary greatly. For of studies in Marine Mammal Science any such work have been conducted by the researcher to the of the where the research was Researchers should use procedures they are available and satisfy the of the research. should be in the most humane and population or impacts should be through selection of animals (e.g., of reproductive and sample size. Where possible activities the research community (e.g., should be as a of for scientific studies of marine mammals.

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