NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, December 6, 2013

INCIDENTS

Everglades NP

Park Staff Rescue Beached Pilot Whales

On the afternoon of Tuesday, December 3rd, a local fishing guide alerted park staff to a pod of whales stranded in the Highland Beach area of the park. Responding park staff found a group of HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_whales" pilot whales at that location. Some of the whales were already dead, but staff were able to move others back into deeper water.

On Wednesday, park staff joined NOAA and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation personnel at the site and continued rescue operations under a unified command. Attempts were made to herd the surviving whales back out into the ocean.

On Thursday morning, observers in a Coast Guard helicopter located the remaining surviving whales nine miles north of the original stranding site. The whales were tracked as they continued to move further offshore.

Pilot whales, which normally live far out in the deep ocean, are one of the most common marine mammals to be involved in mass strandings due to their close knit social structure. NOAA biologists believe there is a high probability of survival for the remaining whales as long as they continue to move back into their normal habitat.

[R. Bruce Gantt, Law Enforcement Specialist]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's InsideNPS. To see the full text, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the Morning Report web page ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/):

Fire and Aviation Management - The draft National Park Service Wildland Fire Strategic Plan: 2014-2019 is now out for review. Your comments are solicited and are due by January 15th. A link is provided to the twelve-page plan.

The White House - By order of President Obama, all US flags are to be flown at half staff until sunset on Monday, December 9th, in honor of Nelson Mandela, who died yesterday.

Office of Communications - The National Park Service has awarded more than $7.6 million in grants to eight states to help stabilize or repair historic properties damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

Lake Mead NRA - Ranger Mark Hnat has been promoted to the Mead District Ranger position at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. He assumes his new duties on December 15th.

Servicewide Training Calendar - A compilation of upcoming training courses, webinars and online training offered by the National Park Service and related agencies.

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The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).

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