2/22/10

Seals, seals everywhere!


Photo courtesy: Whale Center of New England


Over the past couple of weeks our department has been inundated with seal calls. The majority of which are juvenile harp seals. Because of the intense cold weather our northern visitors are hauling out and enjoying the frozen inlets and bays along the Massachusetts and New Hampshire coastline.



Photo Courtesy: Charles Benoit


These animals travel down from the Arctic and inhabit our area from late December through early April. Seals spend a good part of their life out of water. Pups are born on pack ice where harp seals will spend about two weeks with mom and the hooded seals spend only about 2 days!



Photo Courtesy: Whale Center of New England


They are extremely comfortable on the ice and do not get stuck. They are also opportunistic feeders so they do not need to eat every day. The seals will stay out on the beach anywhere from a tide cycle to 3 days.




All seals are covered by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and as such can not be harassed, approached closely, or handled by people or organizations not allowed by NOAA. If you do happen see a seal enjoy the moment from a good distance and let the New England Aquarium stranding team know by calling our automated hotline at 617-973-5247.




This seal a juvenile hooded seal, was found in a playground far from the water. The rescue team relocated the seal to a beach that was more secluded so it could continue to rest. The orange mark on its head was put there as an identifier in case the seal came back up on another beach or in another region.

Read about the first local seal sightings here, and there's video of a previous successful seal rescue here!


-Adam


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posted by Adam at 5:22 PM 0 Comments



2/5/10

Surgery at Gumbo Limbo

Here is a quick update on some of the turtles down at The Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. Last Tuesday January 26th Disney came down with a surgical truck to assist in the removal of papilloma tumors (learn more about these tumors here) of 35 green sea turtles.


Above you can see Dr. Mettee removing some tumors from the inguinal area of one of the 35 sea turtles that were operated on. The veterinarians were using lasers that cauterize as they cut. As described in a previous blog these tumors are highly vascularized, meaning they bleed a lot after being cut which is why using a laser is key.

Flushing an eye of an intubated turtles after a tumor was removed.


A pile of fibropapilloma tumors. (Photos taken by Phil Elmore Courtesy of Dr. Nancy Mettee)

Below are two videos that were shot by the team at Gumbo Limbo during the surgeries. Warning video is of surgical procedures they may be graphic to some viewers!






Last I heard all 35 animals are doing well and they are monitoring the sites of tumor removals. Hopefully all the turtles will make a quick recovery and be able to be released as soon as allowable.
-Adam

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posted by Adam at 3:28 PM 1 Comments



1/29/10

Fibropapilloma

Looking over the past blogs I noticed we never really covered what fibropapilloma is. Fibropapilloma is type of herpes virus that inflicts sea turtles. It mostly affects green sea turtles, but there are cases in loggerhead, olive ridley, and flatback sea turtles as well. There is also anectdotal evidence in kemp's ridley, hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles. The virus occurs globally.



The majority of the tumors are benign meaning that the tumor themselves will not kill the animal. However, tumors of the eyes, mouth and internal tumors can hinder the animal's ability to forage for food. Large tumors can also add drag to the turtles which, can slow the animal, making it easy prey.


Smooth small paps to the left, a large bulbous "cauliflower" pap to the right (the reddish color is iodine).

There are varieties of tumors. Some are smooth and some are cauliflower. They range in colors from pink to black. There is speculation about different stages of the disease causing these outward appearances.


The paps on the left are slightly necrotic. The one to the right was large extremely dense and would adversely affect the animal's ability to swim.

Tumors are most prevalent on intermediate size turtles, which would be why we have not had any tumors on our cold-stun turtles. All of our animals are juveniles approximately 2-5 years of age. It is very rare to see these tumors on adults. Also, the majority of FP cases come out of areas with high levels of pollution, such as lagoons, estuaries, shallow areas and, from what I have been told, Florida's Intercoastal Waterway.

You can see on the turtle above how the large tumors would weigh the animal down and limit it's ability to escape predation.

Currently there is no cure or treatment for fibropapilloma the only way to clear it up is to surgically remove the tumors. Researchers are still unsure as to how the tumors are triggered and how the virus is transmitted. There is still a lot of research to be done.

We went to Florida because of our expertise in cold-stunned animals, but I learned a lot about FP. This was just some information I learned while helping out, and by reading some journal articles upon our return to Boston (you, too, can read them here, here, here and here).

-Adam

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posted by Adam at 6:00 AM 5 Comments



1/22/10

Turtle elevator video!

We had to clean out the large tank at Gumbo Limbo today. While this was occurring we continued treatments on the turtles. All of the turtles were pulled out of the tank because there is no easy way to get them out of the tank once it is empty.


Above are the sea turtles from the very large tank at Gumbo Limbo. They are covered with moist towels so they do not overheat or get too dry.


The awesome team at Gumbo Limbo is working on the turtles.

As with the turtles up in New England they each get a hydration based on bloodwork. You can see Heather above left and Juan P. above right looking through the fluid bags get the right therapy for the turtle they are treating.


Above you can see Cody giving an exam to one of the turtles. We were determining how the pap tumors were burdening these animals. If they were heavily loaded they would need surgery. However if the tumors were small and not effecting there vision they were release candidates.

Above you can see Rick lowering a turtle into the "elevator" which, was then lowered by Kirt to get the turtles back into the very large very deep pool.

In order to get the turtles back into the water quickly after treatment the staff at Gumbo Limbo created this great device to safely lower the turtles down and back in the water. You can see the video below:






-Adam


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posted by Adam at 1:00 PM 2 Comments



1/7/10

Harp Seal on Ice

Last Wednesday, we were able to successfully bring the harp seal that was traversing the Massachusetts coastline to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut for rehabilitation. You may remember from Connie's earlier post, this seal had gone into the water only to resurface a day later in Quincy. Although it is normal for a seal to be hauled out for a period of time, this seal had larger patches of alopecia (hair loss) and was becoming much more lethargic. Also, one of the eyes was starting to have some off color discharge that was concerning.



The icy water of the marsh in front of the seal at high tide.

We gathered our materials and were ready to go out in the morning to get the seal. But first, I had to pickup a dead sea turtle in Weymouth. After that was accomplished, I quickly stopped by the area the seal was resting. Unfortunately, we were in the midst of an astronomical high tide and the animal was in an area that was unsafe for us to attempt a rescue at that time.


One of our field volunteers in the area went out at mid-tide and deemed it safe enough to proceed with capture. I and two of the in-house rescue team volunteers headed out of the Aquarium for a second attempt at the rescue. We met up with two field volunteers and went down into the marsh. As I went for a closer look I noticed the seal was chewing on some of the marsh grass. This could be from stress of my approach, or there is some belief that ice seals may chew on the pack ice to relieve dehydration and when they are off the pack ice they may chew on rocks and grass mistaking it for ice.


Here I am making an approach to assess the best way to kennel the seal.

As I got even closer to look for any other wounds or possible concerning issues that I would need to be aware of during capture, the seal lifted its head and barked and growled at me. Although these are good signs of alertness, harp seals are known to play dead so they are not always this animated during a capture.

Below you can see video of the capture shot by Emily Bauernfeind as she rode along with the rescue team.



The seal is currently at Mystic Aquarium undergoing rehabilitation.

-Adam


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posted by Adam at 8:10 AM 0 Comments



12/4/09

Sea Turtle Fluid Injection Video

After obtaining blood from our turtles the veterinarians establish a fluid plan from the results. Here you can see a rescue rehab team member administering those fluids subcutaneously (below the skin). These are the same types of fluids administered to humans for dehydration.



The majority of the turtles seem to be doing well, however it is very early in the rehabilitation process to know for sure. They have overcome one major hurdle which was to be spotted on the beach by a Wellfleet Audubon member and transported to the New England Aquarium for rehabilitation.



-Adam

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posted by NEAQ at 12:18 PM 0 Comments



12/2/09

That's a lot of turtles

They have arrived! A little while ago we posted an entry wondering when the yearly influx of cold-stunned sea turtles would arrive. This weekend that question was answered. The Aquarium now has more than thirty recovering turtles! These pictures say it all (click to enlarge).



The rescue team is hard at work treating these new patients.



Starting last week the sea turtles started coming in (there was some news coverage from Channel 7). We started with one Kemp's ridley on Tuesday November 24 and took in two per day on Wednesday and Thursday then on Saturday we received five more. On Sunday we hit the mother load! Fifteen turtles arrived at about 3:00 p.m., 13 Kemp's ridleys and two green sea turtles. Since Sunday we have received four more turtles.


Here's a video of what the Sea Turtle Recovery Room looks like now.



You can stop by the Aquarium and see these recovering patients. If you do, be sure to leave a comment and tell us what you saw. We'll keep you updated on the status of these patients and profile some individuals in the coming weeks.

-Adam

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posted by Adam at 3:30 PM 2 Comments



11/19/09

Still waiting for the sea turtles...

We are still waiting for the seasonal influx stranded sea turtles to start coming in. Usually we have many more patients than what we currently have (For example, browse all the turtles that were here last December). So far we haven't had as many stranded sea turtles this year. A couple of factors that may be keeping the turtles off the beaches are warmer weather and wind direction. We hope it may also mean that more turtles were able to get around and out of Cape Cod bay before the water gets too cold.


A Kemp's ridley sea turtle straight from one of the beaches on Cape Cod.

But as we wait I thought I would take you through what will happen to a turtle as it goes through the initial triage process.


Crackle the turtle on the left came in with a propeller strike. This turtle healed well and was later released. The turtles on the right share their first swim in a kiddie pool.

First, the turtle gets an initial exam. This includes weights and measurements, as well as blood draws and an overall body checkup. A heart rate and respiratory rate are taken. Turtles routinely come in with heart rates of 1 beat per minute and respiratory rates of 1 breathe every 15-20 mins. We look for any obvious injuries and palpate for possible breaks in the flippers. The turtle's eyes are stained to check for abrasions or ulcerations. We gauge the animal's activity level and we note algal cover.


The green sea turtle on the left had it's eyes stained to see if their were any injuries from the cold-stun. The turtle on the right is getting its blood drawn.

We then start getting the turtle back up to a normal temperature slowly over a period of several days. This is accomplished in two ways. The first way is with the Aquarium Medical Center's ICU. We keep the turtles in here when they are not swimming. This allows us to control the temperature the turtles are recovering in. The other way is by swimming them in different temperatures of water. Everyday we increase the temperature of the pools until they are at the turtle’s optimal temperature. The first swim they take with us is in fresh water which helps rehydrate the turtle and kills off the majority of saltwater epibiota (algae, barnacles etc.) on the turtle.

Left- a Kemp's ridley sea turtle getting its first fresh water swim. You can see the algae on the shell. Right is the ICU which helps bring the turtles temperature back up to normal.

Once we get blood results back, the turtle then receives fluid therapy specialized for each turtle. Low glucose and the turtle would get a fluids containing dextrose. Low potassium and we add potassium to the hydration. Then if the turtle is strong enough and the blood work is OK the turtle gets to keep swimming overnight. If the turtle needs more rest it gets put back in the ICU for a good night's sleep.

Two Kemp's ridley sea turtles in the ICU have had water based lubricant put on their shells and their eyes so they do not loose moisture as they rest overnight.

So as we wait for more turtles, we continue to care for our two current patients, Acadia and Bandelier. Both are still doing well.

-Adam

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posted by Adam at 7:00 AM 2 Comments