Turtles are still coming in so you will most likely notice the shorter blogs. Most of my time is spent on clinics and working logistics for transports (by land and air!), which is very time consuming. I'll get into that more another time.

Volunteers begin the intake process on a new turtle that just arrived from Cape Cod.

We've had a lot of help with this unprecedented event of sea turtle strandings. We've reached out to our colleagues in the stranding network and to our field volunteers. In addition we hosted a training session on Saturday for additional volunteers. I've got to get back on clinics so enjoy the photos and thanks for your support!

In the photo below Casey feeds sea turtles while a large group of new volunteers arrives for our training session.


In the photos below our star intern, Alice, teaches our new recruits how to prepare sea turtle diets in our food preparation room.


Alice describing the different types of fish and how to prepare it.


We spent a lot of time in the tank area and taught them how to remove animals from the water, how to hold them while staff administer medications and how to feed the turtles.


Below are two new Kemp's ridley sea turtles that came in. In the photo on the left you can see the plaque on the animal's eye. In the photo on the right, Kurt and Jeff work to stimulate an unresponsive new ridley.


Below is a photo of Jeff really enjoying his day working with the stranded sea turtles. Jeff is a NEAq staff member and heads up our social media efforts (facebook, twitter and tumblr). He is working on a really cool web cam we hope to make available to you soon. I'll blog more on this later!


I'm not sure I've talked much about how the turtles make if from the Wellfleet Audubon to our sea turtle hospital. The Audubon has an army of "turtle drivers". The turtle drivers volunteer their time to transport turtles from the Cape to Quincy. This is a very cold job since they are not permitted to use the heat during the ride. The turtles have to remain within 5 degrees of the temperature they were found at. This time of year that might even mean cracking the window every now and again to keep the temp down! Bless these wonderful people! In the photo below Adam chats with two of the turtle drivers.


As evident in these blogs we have some truly amazing people volunteering to help with this record sea turtle stranding event. I hate to think were we would be without the outpouring of support we are receiving from all walks of life! My thanks go to all who have stepped up and lent a hand!

-Connie