(b) Collection The Secretary shall, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, collect and update, periodically, existing information on
(1) procedures and practices for
(A) rescuing and rehabilitating stranded marine mammals, including criteria used by stranding network participants, on a species-by-species basis, for determining at what point a marine mammal undergoing rescue and rehabilitation is returnable to the wild; and
(B) collecting, preserving, labeling, and transporting marine mammal tissues for physical, chemical, and biological analyses;
(2) appropriate scientific literature on marine mammal health, disease, and rehabilitation;
(3) strandings, which the Secretary shall compile and analyze, by region, to monitor species, numbers, conditions, and causes of illnesses and deaths of stranded marine mammals; and
(4) other life history and reference level data, including marine mammal tissue analyses, that would allow comparison of the causes of illness and deaths in stranded marine mammals with physical, chemical, and biological environmental parameters.
