New Marine Animal Hospital Arrives!

Six flatbed trucks rolled down Main Street, Buzzards Bay this morning.  They carried the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal hospital to our site at 120 Main Street where the foundation has been prepared and the building can begin to rise.

Our new hospital will open on October 30th just in time to accept patients from the fall sea turtle stranding season on Cape Cod.  Beginning in November, the rarest and most endangered sea turtles in the world will be treated and rehabilitated in this new marine animal hospital.  Soon, these first hard-shelled patients will be followed by seals, porpoises, dolphins and small whales.

Those cheers you hear come from long-standing and devoted members of the National Marine Life Center who have nurtured this project from conception through design to near completion.  You may also note a few trills and clicks emanating from the sea as marine animals learn that there will soon be new hope for their survival when unfortunate circumstances intervene.

If you’d like to help restore life to the ocean, the vision and the mission of the National Marine Life Center, the $100,000 Challenge will double your contribution to ensure that the new hospital opens its doors on October 30th, 2009.

You can also help endangered marine animals by having a rip-roaring good time at the social event of the season, the Mermaid Ball, on the evening of August 7th.  The ball will be hosted by Admiral Rick Gurnon at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and will include an admiral’s reception, a buffet dinner, music and dancing, as well as silent and live auctions to support the mission of the National Marine Life Center.