The Rescue Team had an eventful day in our own backyard. I received a call on our hotline from the Quincy Police Department that there was a stranded porpoise in Quincy. Once it was determined that the porpoise was alive, I told them we were on the way.

Unlike seals which are semi-aquatic and often rest on the beach, a dolphin on land is in immediate need of assistance. When we get a call for a live dolphin, we automatically pack our gear and head out to the scene. If it is a far distance, we'll have one of our field volunteers go out to provide supportive care to the animal while we are in route. This case happened to be in Quincy, near our Animal Care Center, so we were there in no time.




The above photo is an Atlantic white-sided dolphin that stranded in Duxbury last week.

We also faced another challenge with this rescue: mud, and lots of it [similar to this March 2010 rescue effort]. The dolphin was stranded on a mud flat making it quite a journey to get out to the animal. After getting stuck a few times, we made it out to the dolphin. We were able to get the seagulls away, but they had already done damage to the blowhole. The animal was in a great deal of stress from the stranding event. We did our initial exam and collected blood to be analyzed.


Above: We made it out to the dolphin and prepared to draw blood on the animal.



I had called Adam to bring us some more stretchers and a sled to pull the animal across the mud in. Adam was a trooper and came to our rescue.


Based on the results of our exam, blood work, and the fact that the social needs of this animal could not be met, we elected to humanely euthanize this animal. Although euthanasia is always a difficult decision, it was in the best interest of this animal. The rescue team performed a necropsy on the animal the next day in order to determine the cause of the stranding. There was nothing obvious to determine the cause on gross exam, and pathology is pending. Even though the cause of stranding remains unclear, the damage from the gulls during the stranding event and the fact that it stranded alone were the reasons euthanasia was the best option in this case.



Our way back to dry land with the dolphin carcass was adventurous. Our necropsy coordinater Katie and intern Kelly were laying out stretchers for Adam and I to walk over while pulling this 100+ pound carcass across the mud. We had to make the most of a difficult situation, and watching Katie fall in the mud definitely helped.

You can read more on what to do when you find a stranded marine animal on the beach here. A special thanks to the Quincy Police Department for reporting this animal so quickly!

After the release Dr. Innis and I decided to get some rest. But, we had heard that there was some nesting of leatherbacks on beaches further south. We definately wanted to check that out. Charlie found out a colleague, Dr. Mette was not at the International Sea Turtle Symposium so he gave her a call and indeed they have had nesting leatherbacks and she invited us down to catch up and possibly see a nesting turtle.

Dr. Mette is the veterinarian for both The Loggerhead Marine Life Center and The Gumbo Limbo Nature Preserve. Many of you may remember her and those facilities form our posts after the giant Florida cold-stun event in January of 2010. For those newer to the blog check out the information here.



Dr. Mette has a pretty intense case load of turtles right now. Two of her patients you can see in the photos above. To the left is a green turtle with a prop strike and to the right is a palm sized hawksbill. Both turtles are undergoing therapy at the Marine Life Center. Yes I did want to pocket the hawksbill and bring it back to the New England Aquarium.

After hearing some amazing stories of the turtles at the Marine Life Center we went and had dinner and waited for the call from the beach team. We had finished dinner and catching up and still no call. So Dr. Innis and myself decided to start walking the beach. We got to the half way mark and no turtles. So we started back. We got the call at abuot 11:30 p.m. saying they had a nesting turtle and that Chris would come and pick us up. Of course the turtle was on the other side of the beach about 8 miles away. So Charlie and I found the nearest beach exit and started towards them. Chris picked us up in the van and off we went.



Above is Stella. Some of the pictures are blurry because we do not use a flash while the turtle is nesting. Although, they do enter a sort of trance like state they nesting turtles can be disturbed so if you are lucky enough to see a nesting turtle and have a camera make sure your flash is off.

They knew which turtle she was because of the tags on her rear flippers and the PIT tag in her front flipper. Stella also had a hook stuck in her right shoulder.

This is Dipper. This turtle was brought to us from the Mystic Aquarium during the cold-stun when Skip and Janelle were helping out (see the post here). Now this little one is off the coast of Florida terrorizing crabs I'm sure!


Read more about the transport to Florida in this post and this post. Here are some more photos from the journey.

During the trip down we had to stop and lube up the turtles to make sure they didn't get dry. Dr. Charles Innis did a great job rearranging the totes. Above right is one of the NAIB turtles.