Marine Mammal Programs
Marine Mammal Stranding & Response
** Report Live Marine Mammals in distress to the Marine Mammal Center, (415)-289-SEAL **
** Report Dead Marine Mammals to Noyo Center’s Stranding Coordinator, Sarah Grimes at (707)-813-7925 **
Marine mammals that wash up on shore are “sentinels of the sea,” reflecting ocean health and exposing negative human interactions. Our team has responded to hundreds of deceased marine mammals, collecting scientific data, examining cause of death, and performing necropsies. Our growing specimen collection is a vital catalog of species along our coast, and feeds into a nationwide database that lays the foundation for future science.
As part of NOAA’s West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network through our partnership with California Academy of Sciences, the Noyo Center is the hub for deceased marine mammal stranding response from Gualala to Rockport. The Marine Mammal Center responds to all live marine mammals in distress from San Luis Obispo to Rockport.
Sarah Grimes, Stranding Coordinator, Noyo Center for Marine Science
Training student interns
Other Marine Mammal Programs
When a 73-foot blue whale washed ashore in 2009, there was not a single marine research institution on the 225-mile stretch of coast between Bodega Bay and Trinidad. While hundreds of volunteers coalesced to perform critical research and recover the skeleton, this experience highlighted the need for permanent scientific research and coordinating capacity on the Mendocino Coast. Over the last decade, the Noyo Center has grown into that role, turning our region from a research blindspot into a hotspot. In addition to marine mammal stranding response, we have many other programs relating to marine mammals.
Beach Surveys
Beach surveys are critical for remaining vigilant to changing oceanic conditions. Our dedicated volunteers gather bi-weekly data on our nearshore ecosystem and marine debris, providing critical insights into ecosystem health, potential threats, and human impacts on marine environments. By keeping a watchful, well-trained eye on these indicators of ocean health, our work creates datasets that will inform conservation approaches for years to come.
Whale Watching & Ocean Ecotourism
The Noyo Center partners with Noyo Pelagics and Anchor Charters to host birding and whale watching tours that incorporate both education and scientific data gathering. This blue economy initiative advances conservation and ocean literacy while contributing to the growth of our ecotourism industry.
Connecting Sister Cities Through Humpbacks
In 2025, we launched a partnership with Whales of Guerrero in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. The Sister Sites Science Program envisions our shared, migratory humpback whale populations as a bridge connecting our communities. This unique partnership drives international education, research, and conservation through bilingual marine science, a community photo database for identifying individual whales, collaborative data sharing, and support for the ecotourism industry. This ambitious collaboration unites two communities with a shared vision of resource stewardship and regenerative economic development.
Whale Power!
The Whale Power! program immerses Indigenous youth and families from Mendocino County in hands-on marine science and environmental learning. Field-based curriculum are being developed in partnership between scientists and Indigenous knowledge-holders, and include tidal zone excursions, nearshore marine science exploration and offshore whale watching experiences. By weaving together Indigenous wisdom and contemporary research, we are expanding equitable access to marine science.
Background Information on the Stranding Network & Specimen Collection
As a sub-awardee of the California Academy of Sciences’ Prescott Grant, the Noyo Center has been able to not only provide data for research purposes, but also incorporate specimen collection into a wide range of educational programs including;
• Marine Mammal Identification workshops
• HAZWOPER Training
• Orca Workshop advising
• Specimen Articulation and guidance for collection manager (see orca project)
• Beach Response Training
• Internship programs in specimen collection processing
• Public education and awareness of stranded marine mammal reporting
The Stranding Network
The Stranding Network coordinates emergency responses to sick, injured, entangled or dead seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, and whales. The Marine Mammal Protection Act formalized this program and designated NOAA Fisheries as the lead agency to coordinate related activities. Networks perform a valuable biosurveillance role, as they are often the first to detect threats to marine mammal populations. All data is collected by network organizations and reported to NOAA fisheries.
As a member of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, along with the Noyo Center for Marine Science in Fort Bragg, respond to any dead marine mammal, including large whales, washed up along the coast between Rockport in Mendocino County and the San Mateo/Santa Cruz county line. Each animal offers scientists the opportunity to learn about the health of marine mammal populations and the threats that they face. By collecting specimens and performing necropsies in the field, scientists collect valuable data about marine mammal migration patterns, habitat threats, human impacts, and geographic distribution that help to inform critical conservation decisions and scientific research.
History of the Network
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network was established in the early 1980s under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Members of the network respond to marine mammal stranding events along the Washington, Oregon and California coasts and are part of a nationwide network. Within the California Stranding Network there are sixteen organizations that respond to marine mammal strandings throughout the state. The majority of coverage in California had been throughout the central and southern portions of the state, leaving a large response and data gap in northern California, specifically in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. In the past two years, several organizations have formed new working relationships to provide more coverage in these two counties.
How The Noyo Center Became Involved
In early 2014, through a pilot program supported by Prescott funds, the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) established dead marine mammal stranding response throughout Sonoma County and into southern Mendocino County. In order to assist with response to dead stranded marine mammals in these remote areas, CAS enlisted the Noyo Center for Marine Science (Noyo Center) in Mendocino County as a Designee Organization. This expansion of CAS’s response area coincided with the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association’s establishment of their Beach Watch program in Sonoma and southern Mendocino counties as part of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary’s expansion. These programmatic expansions have already significantly increased the number of dead stranded marine mammal reports and responses in Sonoma and southern Mendocino counties.
Grant Work
All marine mammals are protected by federal law, even after death, and it is important to collect all scientific information from these animals to better understand the health of marine mammal populations and the threats they face. The Noyo Center’s Stranding Coordinator, Sarah Grimes, under the direction of Moe Flannery, Ornithologist and mammologist for the California Academy of Science and Sheila Semans, Executive Director of the Noyo Center for Marine Science responds to all dead marine mammals for the southern Mendocino Coast. When carcasses are located, a necropsy is performed in the field and then samples and data is collected to aid in identifying the animal and to determine the cause of death. Sarah examines the animal for any apparent cause of death, such as gunshot wounds, evidence of ship strike or predator attack. Portions or entire specimens may be collected for further research and education or will be left on the beach to decompose naturally. The data collected is sent to Cal Academy where they enter it into the Stranding Network database, where it can be correlated with other stranding data and give scientists vital information on the status of marine mammal species.