Hi all,

There is some very exciting news happening around the New England Aquarium. For those of you who are not aware, we are in the process of building an off site Rescue Center and collection holding facility. This new center is located in Quincy, Massachusetts and will provide additional holding and state of the art quarantine facilities for the Aquarium's collection, which is very exciting. What's even more exciting is the other section of this facility will be host to a new Rescue Center!!

After a lengthy fund raising effort, we began construction at a warehouse on the Quincy waterfront a couple months ago. (See news coverage of these plans here and here.) As you all know the economy has been tight so we have had to create a phasing plan for this facility until we raise the remainder of our financial goal. The sea turtle ward in phase one will be able to house as many sea turtles as our current capacity. By the end of phase two, we will double our sea turtle capacity reducing the need to transport cold stunned sea turtles. This is exciting news!

Construction on this building is in full swing. With workers everywhere, personal safety gear was required for us to even enter the building.


Before we entered, I took this photo of the Rescue Center entrances. The left hand doorway enters directly into the sea turtle rescue hospital. The doorway on the right is completely separate and enters into what will be our new state of the art necropsy (dissection) lab.


Below is a picture of Rescue staff biologist Kerry McNally as she admires what will be our new laundry room. Rescue work generates a significant amount of dirty laundry. Most of you have heard of and participated in our towel drives. A few times a year we host a towel drive (blankets and sheets are also collected) to get us through the year. Thanks to all the school kids and any of you who have participated!


The photos below are taken from inside looking out (left) and outside looking in (right) of what will be our new treatment room. We included a large window in this room so we can observe the animal areas from inside the clinic while we work on sea turtle treatments.


Below is a photo of Adam as he surveys the new hospital area. I just like the photos of him and Kerry in their hard hats!


Below Adam and Kerry measure out a space where several sea turtle tanks will be placed. It is difficult to gauge the space in this photo so to give you a unit of measure, they are using a 100-foot tape measure.


Of course with the keeping of aquatic animals comes a significant amount of life support equipment. Excellent water quality and temperature control are essential for maintaining the healthiest animals. Below is a photo of just one of our life support sections that will be in this new facility.


We still have a lot of work to do to prepare this facility for the first phase. We plan to have the first phase of the Rescue Center completed before the fall cold-stun season for the endangered sea turtles. We will need several weeks to move equipment, test water and get settled in our new home prior to the arrival of this year's turtles. With the Gulf oil spill taking it's toll on endangered and threatened sea turtles, every turtle we save will make a difference in the population. We have a long history of saving sea turtles and will significantly increase our ability to have a positive impact on their survival with this new Rescue Center.

- Connie

Click here if you’d like to contribute funds to help complete this facility.