Thursday, November 5, 2009

Rescuing a Stranded Seal with Injuries - WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTOS

Hi all,

It was a busy day in the field today. This morning we received a call from a person on Humarock Beach in Scituate, Mass. who found a stranded seal. For any of you who have followed this blog you know that seals commonly come out of the water to rest on shore and are often not injured or "stranded." As always it's important to keep your distance and observe the seal without disturbing it. You can report a seal you think is stranded by calling the 24-hour Marine Animal Hotline: (617) 973-5247.

The Rescue Team will not approach these seals unless there is an obvious injury. This seal, however, did have an injury and was lethargic. The following pictures show what that looks like.

Photos above were taken by Donald Armstrong. I authorized Donald to approach this
seal for good photographs, which I then used to make the decision to collect the animal. (Click to enlarge)

Photo by Donald Armstrong. In this photo you can see the blood around the lower jaw and dribbling down the chest of the animal.

Kate and New England Aquarium Veterinarian Dr. Julie Cavin took a team down to assess the animal and determined that it did need to be collected. They collected it and performed a physical exam, including blood collection and analysis. It was difficult to determine the source of the blood since there was a significant amount of it.

This photo was taken during the physical exam. The towel is used in restraint so that the animal is not able to bite the person holding the seal while the vet examines the wounds. Notice the rings around this animal's eyes. Seals don't have return tear ducts so wet rings is a sign of good hydration in seals.

The seal was kenneled after the exam and transported to the University of New England (UNE) Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center. The seal will undergo a series of diagnostics over the next several says to determine the cause of the wounds and its overall health. Our network partners at UNE will have their work cut out for them with this case. We'll keep you posted on her condition (yes it is a little female).

- Connie

Labels: Connie, harbor seal, strandings, University of New England

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Photos of the Sea Turtle Release

On August 26, 2009, five rehabilitated sea turtles were released on Dowses Beach in Osterville, Massachusetts. In addition, a hybrid sea turtle named Simba (patient details here) was released at the same time by the University of New England (UNE) Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center. Find out more about each turtle's rescue story by scrolling through all the posts about Bubba, Casper, Dash, Iceman and Goose. You can also follow satellite tracking tags used as part of this release at seaturtle.org.

Flip through this slide show to see more photos from the release taken by education staff member Vickie Cataldo and volunteer Casey Fredette.

Labels: Bubba, Casper, Dash, Goose, hybrid, Iceman, photos, release, University of New England

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Seals Don't Eat Hot Dogs!

Harbor seal pups have arrived on the NH and MA coast! Adam posted about pupping season on June 24 with tips of what to do and what not to do when you see a seal on the beach (remember seals are semi-aquatic and it is normal for them to rest on shore). This past week, the rescue department has had several cases, unfortunately, where people did not follow these tips. We had people trying to feed seals hot dogs, seals being covered with blankets, and going for rides in a cooler. Hopefully we can all learn from the following stories.

Story #1: When you see a seal on the beach, call the New England Aquarium hotline at 617-973-5247 instead of trying to help the seal on your own. Last week we received a call from an individual who had a seal in his truck and was bringing it to the aquarium. Supposedly this seal had been on a beach in Salisbury for two days, but it was the first the Rescue Department heard of it! Rescue staff met with the person, who had it in a cooler (vented at least) and wrapped in a blanket in the back of a truck. Seals should never ever be covered because they can easily overheat. "Shivering" is more than likely a stress response from people being too close, so the best thing is to stay at least 150 feet away. This particular seal was hot to the touch. It also had other health problems including a swollen rear flipper. Rescue staff and volunteers brought the seal to the University of New England (UNE) Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center for medical treatment.

The seal was picked up off the beach and placed in a cooler.

Story #2: This is another reminder that seals should never be wrapped in blankets, which can cause them to overheat and lead to death. On the 4th of July, we received information that a person picked up a seal and dropped it off at a whale watch company in NH for care. Luckily the whale watch staff called us immediately for instructions and we were able to meet them to collect the seal. The seal had originally been wrapped in a blanket, sitting on someone's lap on the way to the whale watch. First of all, seals are wild animals that carry diseases so this person is lucky he/she did not get bit. Also, the seal's body temperature was over 105 degrees Fahrenheit, which is much too hot for a seal. We brought this animal to UNE as well, and unfortunately it passed away not too long after arrival. Although this animal was likely in poor health on the beach as well, the improper transport did not help the situation.

This pup was brought to a whale watch company wrapped in a blanket. The rescue team brought it to UNE and assisted with the exam on the 4th of July.

Story #3: A seal was resting on a beach in NH and we had a field volunteer take a look at it. It seemed to be in pretty good condition except it appeared stressed...shivering slightly and labored breathing. The volunteer noted that a child was sitting about one foot from the seal, although lifeguards had put up signs to keep a 150 foot distance. There were also reports that people tried to feed the seal hot dogs. We know those are not in a seal's normal diet! When you see a seal on the beach, keep your distance for your safety and the seal's safety. Also, never try to feed a seal. Seals eat live food, and food handled or prepared by humans can be dangerous for them. We monitored as a 24 hour watch, receiving updates on it once to twice a day, and the seal ended up going back in the water on it's own.

A harbor seal pup rests on the beach.

Also remember that seals are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which means people can be fined or arrested for harassing a seal, or altering its normal behavior in any way. So keep your distance and call our stranding hotline right away if you see a sick or injured seal on the beach!

~Kerry

Labels: harbor seal, hotline, pup, rescue team, stranding, University of New England

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Iceman!

Iceman is a Kemp's ridley sea turtle that arrived to the New England Aquarium on November 20th 2008. The turtle stranded in Eastham at Cole Road Landing. Overall the turtle was not too bad off. You can see above to the left what it looked like upon arrival with the dried algae covering the majority of the carapace (top part of the shell) dehydrated and emaciated all symptoms of cold-stun which, is the primary reason for this turtle stranding. To the right of that picture is what this turtle looks like now.

Why Iceman?

Goose our green sea turtle arrived on the same day as Iceman. Goose... Iceman... Top Gun anybody?

Although, Goose was named after the gooseneck barnacles on the carapace that you can see in the picture below. Iceman's name stuck!

This turtle was also transported to the University of New England Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center during the cold-stun season. This turtle came back to the New England aquarium when we opened the Sea Turtle Recovery Room.

This turtle is doing great! Swimming and eating well, you can currently see this turtle with Casper in the right hand side window of the recovery room.

Hint: When trying to see the turtles in their underwater windows of the recovery room, if you don't see them swimming around or in one of their hideaways look to the bottom left corner they like to rest there.

-Adam

Labels: Caspar, Goose, Iceman, Sea Turtle Recovery Room, Top Gun, University of New England

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

What's their story?

Currently we still have six sea turtles here in the Rescue and Rehabilitation department. You might know these turtles already, and if you don't follow the link to read all the posts about them.

Bubba

Casper

Goose

and last but certainly not least....

Orion

They are all still located in the Sea Turtle Recovery Room. There are two other turtles in there that you don't know about yet. The first one is Dash.

Dash

Dash came to us on November 1, 2008 from First Encounter beach in Eastham MA. Primary reason for stranding was due to cold-stun but this turtle had a 3 cm laceration on the left rear flipper (LRF). This laceration was repaired with staples. The turtle started doing well and was transported to the University of New England in Biddeford to make room for more turtles that were stranding on Cape Cod.

When we opened the Sea Turtle Recovery Room this was one of the turtles that came back to us. By then the staples had been removed and the laceration was completely healed. There was still some swelling and the turtle did not use that flipper all that often. We put it into one of the tanks that had a high flow rate giving it some turtle physical therapy like we gave Route.

Currently you can see Dash in the left window of the Rehab Center enjoying the hideaway and the turtle treadmill. Stay tuned for a future post about another turtle you might not know about ... Iceman.

Iceman

-Adam

Labels: Bubba, Cape Cod Bay, Casper, Dash, Goose, Hideaway, Iceman, laceration, Orion, physical therapy, Route, Sea Turtle Recovery Room, treadmill, University of New England

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Some new turtles at the Aquarium

Things are going well for our cold-stunned turtles that were rescued in November and December. We have recently opened several new pools in our Sea Turtle Recovery Room, so we have space for more turtles. Yesterday we received three turtles back from the University of New England Marine Animal Rescue Center. These three turtles (two Kemp's ridley and one green turtle) were found stranded on Cape Cod beaches, and were transported to New England Aquarium for emergency care.

After several days of care, the turtles' condition had improved, so we coordinated with our colleagues at University of New England to transfer the animals to their facility for further care. This gave us more space to accept additional stranded turtles from Cape Cod. Now that the stranding season is over (our last turtle was stranded in late December), we have room to accept turtles back to the Aquarium to complete their rehabilitation. The turtles will likely remain with us until July or August, when they will be released to the wild.

The photos above show the new green turtle, named Goose. Green turtles are very beautiful. They differ from Kemp's ridley turtles in that they enjoy eating plant material. We thank the staff and students of the University of New England for their assistance, and for the excellent care they provided to these turtles.

-Dr. Innis

Labels: Goose, Green Sea Turtle, Kemp's ridley sea turtle, Sea Turtle Recovery Room, University of New England

About

We rescue and rehabilitate stranded, injured and diseased marine animals from throughout the New England coastal region. Established in 1968, our Marine Animal Rescue Team has responded to thousands of calls to provide medical treatment for whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea turtles.