Who to contact
Offshore accidents with marine animals can quickly escalate into emergencies, so it’s important to know what to look for and what to do. Emergencies do not involve live, free-swimming healthy cetaceans or live, healthy hauled-out seals.
No matter what the emergency is, the incident should be reported to the appropriate agency – see below for a list of response networks in your region:
Once on the phone, continue to observe the marine animal and follow the five important steps below:
Step 1
Stay calm and call the regional authority (numbers below)
Step 2
Determine if alive or dead (monitor breathing)
Step 3
Identify the species, if possible
Step 4
Record exact location, time, number of animals, description of condition, and take photographs
Step 5
You may receive further information for action upon contacting your regional marine animal emergency network
For further information please refer to the Marine Animal Response Network website