Stranded online: utilizing social media to monitor marine mammal stranding in Vietnam

There is an enormous information gap on marine mammal stranding in Vietnam. With a coastline of 3,260 kilometers excluding islands, monitoring marine mammal stranding is particularly challenging in this country. Due to the... [ view full abstract ]

There is an enormous information gap on marine mammal stranding in Vietnam. With a coastline of 3,260 kilometers excluding islands, monitoring marine mammal stranding is particularly challenging in this country. Due to the popularity of social media and widespread use of smartphone in Vietnam, information on many of stranding incidents are available on the internet, thus creating a potential data source for monitoring the stranding of marine mammals. To understand this potential, we conducted a systematic searching for marine mammals stranding along Vietnamese coast, targeting the time period from January 2006 to April 2018, on Facebook, Youtube and online newspapers. We found total 116 cases of marine mammal stranding along the Vietnamese coast that have been reported on social media. Stranding incident appear to distribute evenly along the Vietnamese coast. The average stranding case per month were 0.79. There were 17 marine mammal taxa were identified from acquired data. The most commonly stranded species was the Indo-Pacific finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides), accounted for 12% number of records. Compared to stranding response teams or inquiring reports from local stakeholders, using social media is a quicker and low-cost way to get information on stranded species, locations, and time of the incident. But in most cases, the cause of stranded (and mortality) could not be determined from provided information of social media. In combination with citizen science programs and public outreaches, social media can become a more useful tool for monitoring marine mammal stranding in the country.