Happy Holidays to all our blog readers. Today's blog is dedicated to the great people who came in today to help us care for these incredible creatures. Enjoy the photos of cool animals and the dedicated and caring people who help them.

A Kemp's ridley eats a piece of squid on Christmas Day.


With a full hospital of endangered sea turtles there is little time for a holiday. We started our day at 6:30am by setting up for a busy day in the sea turtle clinic. 

Below is a photo of a few early bird volunteers that came in by 7:00am to help us set up and prepare for a busy day.


Once everyone arrived we began removing animals from the water and began our daly treatments.

In the photo below you can see animals in their boxes being carried to the clinic for treatments.


In the photo below on the left former NEAq senior biologist in the Rescue Department, Kate, gave up her holiday to help the turtles. She somehow convinced her husband Dan to volunteer as well - now that's spending quality time together! In the photo on the right our new NEAq senior biologist Katie and volunteer Chris prepare to treat a turtle.


While treatments were in full swing, Casey, Kady and Laura were in the food prep room preparing a Christmas meal for the turtles.


In the photos below you can see the fruits of their labor, herring bites, squid rings and squid heads.


In the photo below Kate, Dan and Kate complete the treatment on the loggerhead.


You may have noticed a common theme in these blog photos...there is a Kate, Kady or Katie in almost every photo. Out of ten of us working on Christmas day we had four Katie, Kate, Kady's. In the photo below from L-R (ha ha!) Kady, Kate, Kate and Katie pose for the "Kates" photo.


In the photo below, Casey returns the loggerhead to his pool after his treatment.


The pool deck was bustling with activity. Look at all these great people who came in to help us take care of these turtles.


After treatments and before we fed the turtles we took a break to enjoy some holiday treats. As you can see in the photos below there were many naughty treats for us to enjoy and a lot of laughter and good cheer!


In the photo below on the left a green sea turtle swims past the viewing window. In the photo on the right a Kemp's ridley swims past the viewing window.


At the end of each day, we do a detailed review of each turtles' medical chart to be sure we didn't miss any treatments. We also organize the charts into bins for the next morning to make it easier. You can see Katie sorting through the charts, while the volunteers feed turtles in the background.


While the Rescue blog is usually about animals - today's blog is about people. The caring people in the photo below and throughout this blog were kind enough to give up their Christmas to come in and help us take care of the many endangered sea turtles that are still here in our care.

The photo below shows our Christmas Team from L-R: Kate, Dan, Kate, Chris, Katie, Theresa,Laura, Casey and Kady.


Happy Holidays!

- Connie