ABSTRACT
The US Navy Department conducted extensive studies of marine mammals at naval centers in Point Mugu and San Diego and Kaneohe and Oahu. Some of these studies, as well as observations of many other investigators, were reported in the book Mammals of the Sea. For the veterinary scientist or pathologist that has been trained in the investigation of terrestrial mammal diseases, it is an exciting challenge to study the diseases of these interesting aquatic mammals. It is interesting to discover the unusual anatomic variants that some of these animals have, and some differences in the way they respond to certain diseases, when compared to "domestic mammals". However, one should always keep in mind that the diseases and the lesions are no different than those one has been trained to study in the more conventional animal species, and one must simply apply the education and training received in order to recognize and study these marine mammal diseases.
