ABSTRACT
On January 1, 2000, an Alta Vista search engine Web search for “marine mammal medicine” yielded 1,196,440 matches! Just prior to sending the chapters for this textbook off to the publisher, a second search was conducted using the same search phrase and again on Alta Vista; this time we found 11,426,338 matches, a tenfold increase in sites in less than 1 year! We also asked a number of listserves what were their members’ favorite Web sites pertaining to marine mammal medicine; we received over 50 responses from people around the world, many of whose suggestions are noted in this chapter and in Chapter 7 (Careers). These kinds of numbers provide but a hint of the explosion of Internet-based information that is occurring. Accessing information and products on the Internet is the wave of the future, and the future is here today.
Along with the World Wide Web to access information has come a tangle of difficulties. Reading materials on the Web really is no different from scientifically reviewing a potential paper for publication in a scientific journal. First, you must scrutinize the document and its authors to determine if the paper is even worthy of consideration. Then, using your best scientific judgment, you must decide if what you are reading is valid. The Web has no quality control per se; anyone in the world can represent him or herself as a marine mammal expert. Peer review is often lacking. Web writers span the spectrum from a leading expert in the field, who includes superb references and acknowledgments of peer reviewers, to someone with primarily an emotional interest in marine mammals, with minimal factual information and few to no scientific citations to back up assumptions or conclusions.
