Nonprofit Organiz. February, 1983 U.S. Postage Paid Bar Harbor, Me. College of the Atlantic Permit #47 SC Bar Harbor, ME 04609 COA News Carey Joins Board of Trustees trustee of the Inter-University Program of Case Studies in Public Administration and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the MITRE Corporation and the Russell Sage Foundation. William D. Carey, Executive Carey and his wife Mary Margaret live in Washington, Officer of the American Associa- D.C. They have five children. tion for the Advancement of Science and publisher of Science and Science '83 magazines, has been elected to Jamaica: A Case Study the Board of Trustees of College of the Atlantic. In Third-World Development Announcing the board's decision last month, COA Nine students from Paul Dubois' fall-term Third-World president Judith Swazey said Development class spent ten days in Jamaica over the she was particularly pleased to December break. Accompanied by Paul and his son welcome Bill Carey into the Jonathan, the students got a first-hand look at some of the college community. "In addition problems studied in the course. In addition to attending to his extensive knowledge of and contact with the scientific seminars and cultural events, they visited schools, a hospital, community, his deep concerns about human values are day care centers, embassies, a rural village, archeological digs central to the mission and philosophy of COA," she said. and museums on the West Indies island. A friend and colleague of Judith's, Carey gave the guest The seminars explored such issues as agricultural address at her inauguration in October. His talk stressed the development, public education and literacy campaigns, importance of infusing science and technology with love and community development and village self-help, international aid compassion. programs, foreign policy, and third-world dependency. Carey holds a B.A. and M.A. in public law and Students interviewed ministry, agency and embassy officials, a government from Columbia University and the M.P.A. in newspaper editor, teachers and village organizers. They also public administration from Harvard University. He has served had the opportunity to meet a wide variety of Jamaican on numerous committees and commissions on science and people. They visited the home of several upper-class technology including the U.S. Steering Committee for the Jamaicans as well as one home where the mother and her six United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for children all sleep in the same bed. Development and the U.S./U.S.S.R. Joint Commission on Scientific and Technological Cooperation. Prior to his position In a report to the college community, Paul said the trip at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was an "extremely positive educational experience. Before this he served as Assistant Director of the U.S. Bureau of the trip, some of our students had not spent so much Budget and as vice-president in charge of public affairs for Arthur concentrated time in a city at night, in a foreign country, as a D. Little, Inc. racial minority in a black country, or as a member of a group A member of the National Academy of Public Admini- perceived as rich by local standards. Jamaica is a poor, stration, the American Political Science Association, the black, largely Christian third-world country, and it was easy American Society for Public Administration and the Institute for our students to feel they were outsiders in a strange of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, he is a culture and society." whales who were still alive when rescuers arrived. One died "A Sad and Awesome Sight" shortly after being transported to the New England Aquarium COA Team Studies and the other was finally put to sleep after clinging to life for a month in the Mystic Aquarium. Whale Beachings Although the stranding provided some unique oppor- tunities for whale research, Catherine said it was extremely "When we arrived at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife difficult to take part in the autopsies of one whale after Sanctuary on November 17, the whales were already dead," another. "I'm sure that we will learn many helpful things from Catherine Kiorpes, director of COA's Natural History the tissue samples, but I am less sure that we will find out Museum recalls. "It was a sad and awesome sight to see 65 why strandings occur," she said. "Tissue samples are only a lifeless pilot whales huddled together in the marsh just above small part of a very complicated picture." the high tide mark." After the autopsies, most of the pilot whale carcasses Catherine and 15 COA students responded to a call were buried in the marsh mud. Three skeletons were from the New England Marine Mammal Stranding Network salvaged, however, for display and study at the college. The to aid in the autopsies of whales who beached themselves at largest skelton, that of a 22-foot bull, will be used for the the Audubon Sanctuary on Cape Cod last fall. Less than 24 Whales on Wheels marine education program. hours after the strandings were discovered, the COA crew arrived. For the next two days they aided researchers from the New England Aquarium, Guelph Veterinarian College of Ontario and the Mystic Aquarium in the autopsy effort. Students collected tissue samples from the heart, brain, blubber, liver, kidney and muscle of each whale. The samples were marked and sent back to the New England Aquarium and Guelph where they will be examined for evidence of disease or parasites that might explain the stranding. Without such evidence, researchers can only speculate about what causes a whale to beach itself. Some believe that an inner ear parasite affects echolocation. Others theorize that distress signals sent out by one beached whale may attract others to the shore. Still another theory holds that the sloping shore of a beach or tidal marsh such as the one at Wellfleet Sanctuary may give off confusing echolocation signals that mislead whales as to the depth of the water. Groups of pilot whales have beached themselves before in the same Cape Cod area. Once whales are stranded, it is virtually impossible to save them unless rescuers are on hand when the beachings occur. Due to their structure and metabolism, whales cannot shed heat to the environment. Without the cooling effect of the water, they literally cook inside. A futile attempt was made to save two of the Wellfleet Whale stranding at Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary