PAMS Student Council President and Representative.

Over two thousand miles away from Cape Cod, in the heart of the Navajo Nation, students at the Pinon Accelerated Middle School recently held a talent show to raise money for the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal hospital.

Stating he “saw a sticker on a box,” one student researched NMLC on the internet and suggested the talent show fundraiser to the Student Council.  Another student cheered “Go turtles!”

PAMS teacher Ms. Kristin Monts

Ms. Monts, the students’ teacher, explained that in the Navajo culture, turtles are very important.  The students wanted to help an organization that helps turtles.  They did the internet research and selected the National Marine Life Center.  During the talent show, one student even brought in a pet turtle as a mascot!

The students read poetry, danced, sang, and played the guitar.  Over the course of an evening, they raised $500 for the National Marine Life Center!  Here is a video the students produced about talent show.

On behalf of our future marine animal patients who will benefit from your donation, thank you students!  You are an inspiration!

Student presenting a reading at the PAMS talent show.

Some of the student talent!

Students dancing in the PAMS talent show.

Students show off their guitar skills!

Announcing the next act!

Another talented musician!

Student checks out the turtle mascot.

It's all about the animals!

Stranded Kemp's ridley turtle. Photo by Bill Allen, MassAudubon.

The recent cold snap and last weekend’s nor’easter have resulted in the first turtle stranding of the year.  This animal is currently in rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium.  Click here to read it’s story on the New England Aquarium’s Marine Animal Rescue Team Blog.

The Sea Turtle Stranding Network

MassAudubon staff rescuing a loggerhead turtle.

The National Marine Life Center is a partner in the National Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network.  Within the Northeast Region, there are several other partners, each with slightly different responsibilities and all working collaboratively to help cold-stunned sea turtles.  The Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary provides beach response and triage.  The New England Aquarium provides initial medical evaluation and critical care.  And the National Marine Life Center, along with the NOAA Woods Hole Science Aquarium, the University of New England’s Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center at Biddeford, Maine, and the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation in New York, provide on-going rehabilitative care.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversee the stranding network.

Even with all these organizations working in partnership to help, in years with a lot of strandings there isn’t enough rehabilitation space.  When this happens, turtles are sent to Georgia, Florida, or sometimes farther for care.  That’s why we’re so excited to open the first two pools in the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal rehabilitation hospital!  Each pool has room for up to 9 juvenile Kemp’s ridley turtles, the most common species and age class to strand on Cape Cod.  Or, each pool could fit up to 3 juvenile loggerhead turtles, the second most common to strand around here.  We’re pleased to reopen our doors to sea turtle patients this season.  And, as we raise additional funds, we will put additional pools on-line so we can help more animals.

What To Do If You Find A Stranded Sea Turtle

In the meantime, with turtle stranding season upon us, it’s a good time to remind people what to do if you find a stranded sea turtle in Massachusetts.

DON’T:
~ Don’t put the turtle back in the water.  It needs medical attention.
~ Don’t remove the turtle from the beach.  Special permits and training are required to work with these endangered animals.

DO:
~ Move the turtle above the high tide line.
~ Cover the turtle with dry seaweed, to help it from getting even colder.
~ Mark the turtle’s location with a stick, buoy, or other piece of beach debris so MassAudubon’s rescue volunteers can find it.
~ CALL MassAudubon’s Rescue Hotline at 508-349-2615.  Leave a message with very specific directions and include your contact number so they can call you back if they have questions.

If you live outside of Massachusetts, please click here to find the name of your state sea turtle stranding network coordinator.

Thanks for caring about stranded sea turtles!

A Kemp's ridley turtle in rehabilitation at NMLC.

Past Sea Turtle Patient Lavender

The National Marine Life Center is pleased to announce that they have re-opened to sea turtles. Last Thursday the new hospital passed inspection by NOAA representatives and is now officially open to sea turtles in need of rehabilitative care!

The sea turtle ward of the new hospital has two 12 foot diameter, 3,500 gallon pools awaiting their first patients. Each pool can hold up to 10 sea turtles and possible patients include Kemp’s Ridley, Green, Loggerhead, and Hawksbill sea turtles. The Kemp’s Ridley is the most endangered of the sea turtle species but also the most common species to strand on Cape Cod. The Center expects to admit their first patient into the hospital building during the fall cold stunning season, but are capable of admitting a patient earlier if there is a need.

Sea turtles can strand for many reasons including boat strikes, entanglement in fishing line or other marine debris, predator attacks, disease, and cold stunning. Many cold stunned sea turtles wash up on Cape Cod beaches each year, creating a need for the rehabilitation capabilities of the National Marine Life Center. Many of the turtles that stranded last fall/winter were transported as far south as Florida to receive care. The National Marine Life Center is very excited to offer care to these animals right here on Cape Cod.

Past Loggerhead Sea Turtle Patient Fletcher

The National Marine Life Center began admitting patients in 2004, and has successfully rehabilitated and released 20 sea turtles. In 2007 the roof buckled on the old hospital building and it had to be demolished. The center has been working towards opening the doors of the new facility ever since. The NMLC staff and volunteers are very eager to begin admitting turtles that need care into this state of the art facility!

JOIN US for a spring-time open house!

Saturday, April 16
10 am – 2 pm
120 Main Street, Buzzards Bay

Explore NMLC’s Marine Animal Discovery Center, make a marine animal spring basket, enjoy arts and crafts and games and refreshments, tour our new marine animal hospital. Visit Teanna the diamondback terrapin, Catch-22 the red-bellied cooter, and the eight red-bellied cooter hatchlings in “headstart”.

$5/person suggested donation, members FREE. Join as a member when you arrive and get in free! Donations and memberships help us take care of endangered animals, advance science, and educate youth.

All ages welcome. For more information, call 508-743-9888.

The flat walls were the easy part.  We could use an entire sheet of FRP and piece them together with special fittings in between.  The corner behind the water heater was the trickiest!  Pipes coming through the wall made it especially difficult.

Steps included measuring and cutting each FRP panel (if necessary), applying FRP adhesive, placing on the wall, rolling to eliminate bubbles, and affixing trip.  Then repeat as needed!

We think the results are great!

Our first two sea turtle tanks are now filled with sea water from the Cape Cod Canal. Once in the tank the seawater becomes part of a closed loop filtration system. The water is pumped upstairs to the hospital filtration room where each system has mechanical, biological, and chemical filtration components to clean the water. The water within one system is kept completely separate from the other systems to ensure no cross contamination takes place.

We now face a few new challenges in getting all our pumps from the previous hospital building up and running again. We will then install ozone to these first two systems as the final filtration component. Ozone is used to kill harmful organisms in the water such as bacteria and viruses.

We are excited to have our first two pools filled with water! We are getting closer and closer to admitting our first patients into the new building everyday! To learn more about the new animal hospital, stop by and visit our Marine Animal Discovery Center. We are open everyday this week (February 19th-25th) from 10am-5pm. Click to learn more about the educational programs being offered this week.

The students are using mold resistant sheetrock to enclose the room. After the drywall is completed fiberglass reinforced panels (FRP) will be added to create a waterproof surface that can be cleaned and disinfected. There are strict guidelines in place regarding the preparation of food for protected species of animals undergoing rehabilitation. All food prepared for our patients will be restaurant grade and thanks to the new walls we will be able to keep the food preparation area clean and sanitary!

Sea Turtle filter system and filter media at the NMLC

We are one step closer to getting the first two pools up and running in the Sea Turtle Ward. The 1,850 pounds of filter media needed to run our filtration system arrived at the new animal hospital yesterday. This filter media will be used to fill the two large sand filters which are a vital part of the turtle life support system. Each tank in the new hospital will have its own filtration system. This allows the water in each system to remain separate and maintain quarantine between pools. Each system will have a mechanical, biological, and chemical filtration component to clean the water. The sand filters provide the mechanical filtration component by removing particulate matter from the water. The sand filters for our first two pools each require 650lbs of silica sand and 275lbs of pea gravel to run properly.

Volunteer Matt Shaffer loads the donated pea gravel at Cape Cod Aggregates

We would like to send a big thank you out to Cape Cod Aggregates who donated the 550lbs of pea gravel for the system, and to the volunteers who helped get the filter media to the NMLC and up to the mezzanine level of the hospital where the filtration systems are located. Thank you to Wendy Wyman and Matthew Shaffer for the donation of their time and use of their vehicles to haul the media. We would also like to thank Josh Shubert, Tyler DeHay, and Kaitlyn Crowley for assisting with the heavy lifting upon arrival at the NMLC. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Volunteers Josh Shubert & Tyler DeHay haul filter media into the new marine animal hospital

Please, VOTE once per day every day in December.
Click on “Vote for This Idea” at:  www.refresheverything.com/nationalmarinelifecenter or
Text 104765 to PEPSI (73774).  Standard text messaging rates apply.

And, help spread the word!
~ E-mail your friends, family, coworkers, fellow students, club members, customers, employees, neighbors, etc. and ask them to vote also.
~ Post flyers on community bulletin boards in your area.  Coffee shops, libraries, post offices, community centers, all are good bets.
~ Share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and other social media venues.

What could a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh grant do to help marine animals? It could build  several seal and sea turtle rehabilitation pools in our new marine wildlife hospital.  This would allow us to help more sick and stranded animals.  But to win, we need your help.

NMLC's proposed new seal rehabilitation pool. Drawing by cosestudi.

NMLC's new sea turtle ward. Drawing by cosestudi.

On behalf of the animals, thank you.

We’re in the running for a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant to add rehabilitation pools to our new marine animal hospital.  This unique grant program awards funds to the projects with the highest number of votes.  You can vote every day during December!  Vote now and help save stranded seals and sea turtles!

Here’s what you can do:
1) VOTE by clicking HERE, OR by TEXTING 104765 to Pepsi (73774).  (Standard text messaging rates apply.)
2) SPREAD THE WORD!  Share on Facebook, e-mail all your friends and family, tweet on Twitter, post on your blog, hang flyers in your school and/or workplace and/or neighborhood.

On behalf of the animals, thank you!