Aquatic Mammals 2019, 45(4), 447-455, DOI 10.1578/AM.45.4.2019.447 Short Note A Mass Stranding Event of Long-Finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala melas) in Southern Chile Mario Alvarado-Rybak, 1, 2, 3 Daniela Haro, 4 Pablo A. Oyarzún, 5 Catherine Dougnac, 6 Josefina Gutierrez, 2, 7, 8 Natalia Toledo, 9 Nicolás Leiva, 9 Claudia Peña, 2 Constanza Cifuentes, 2 Nicolás Muñoz, 10 Elisa Monti, 10 Daniel Casado, 11 Frederick Toro, 1, 2, 12 Claudio Soto-Azat, 1, 11 and Betsy Pincheira 2 1 Centro de Investigación para la Sustentabilidad & Doctorado en Medicina de la Conservación, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, Republica 252, Santiago, Chile E-mail: maalry@gmail.com 2 Asociación de Médicos Veterinarios de Fauna Silvestre, AMEVEFAS, Santiago, Chile 3 epi3lab, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Marcoleta 391, Santiago, Chile 4 Centro Bahía Lomas, Universidad Santo Tomas, Avenida Costanera 01834, Punta Arenas, Chile 5 Centro de Investigación Marina Quintay (CIMARQ), Universidad Andres Bello, Quintay, Chile 6 Wildlife Conservation Society, Programa en Chile (WCS-Chile), Balmaceda 586, Punta Arenas, Chile 7 Instituto de Patología Animal, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile 8 Programa de Investigación Aplicada en Fauna Silvestre, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile 9 Servicio Nacional de Pesca, Departamento de Gestión Ambiental, Puerto Aysén, Chile 10 Laboratorio Ecología Mamíferos Marinos, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Isla Teja 567, Valdivia, Chile 11 Fundación MERI, Avenida Kennedy 5682, piso 2, Vitacura, 7650720 Santiago, Chile 12 Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Santo Tomás, Avenida Limonares 190, Viña del Mar, Chile Cetacean strandings have historically been of stranding response since rapid collection of data great interest for scientists because they pro- from these events is crucial to determine the cause vide opportunities to study typically inaccessible of stranding or death. To reach as many strand- marine species and supply information on their ings as possible, the National Fisheries Service of spatiotemporal distribution (Maldini et al., 2005), Chile (Sernapesca), the Chilean Navy, and certain biology (Fernández & Hohn, 1998; Thayer et al., research-based conservation organizations (e.g., 2003), population ecology (Santos et al., 2014), universities and nonprofit organizations) share and health (Fernández et al., 2008; Peltier et al., stranding response jurisdiction in the country. 2013). Occasionally, data collected from cetacean Despite these efforts, numerous events are not strandings can reveal the anthropogenic or natural rapidly studied, and many probably go unreported. causes of the mortality event (e.g., Evans et al., The LFPW is a widely distributed cetacean 2005; Johnston et al., 2012; Peltier et al., 2013). which exhibits the largest number of reported mass Every year, hundreds of marine mammals strandings worldwide (Olson, 2018). In some cases, strand (Servicio Nacional de Pesca [Sernapesca], strandings involve what appear to be healthy ani- 2018) along the 8,000-km coastline of Chile mals (Olson, 2018). However, the causes behind (Andrade, 1991), much of which is composed of such strandings are often undetermined, even when isolated, high latitude islands and fjords that are fresh specimens are available for investigation difficult to access. The long-finned pilot whale (Moore et al., 2018). The majority of strandings, (Globicephala melas, hereafter LFPW) has been however, are likely to present decomposed individu- recorded along much of the Chilean coast from als, making the cause of death even more difficult to the north in Iquique (20° 12' S to 79° 8' W) to the establish (Kemper et al., 2005). extreme south in Navarino Island (55° 15' S to 67° Historically, identification of beached LFPW 30' W), including the island of San Ambrosio (26° has been made based on body size and specific skin 20' S to 79° 53' W; Aguayo-Lobo et al., 1998). coloration patterns (e.g., saddle patch located pos- This vast and remote area poses problems for terior to the dorsal fin, postorbital eye blaze, and