Learning the Ropes: Part 1
Our first day was amazing and I can not wait to learn more about how the program runs in the welcome center to help the animals in the hospital. Although, we do not get to touch the animals because we are minors we are learning a ton about how both the welcome center and the hospital work together to save animals. We may be doing a lot of work outside the hospital, but it teaches us a lot about how the National Marine Life Center keeps itself above water.
On Monday he real work started. During the first week Marissa and I would spend three out of the five days at the National Marine Life Center, and the other two days at the Cape Wildlife Center. The National Marine Life Center is a non-profit based out of Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts that focuses on the rehabilitation of seals and sea turtles. Eventually they would like to work with small whales and porpoises, but that is impossible until they expand their hospital.
The very first person we met at NMLC was Ashley. Ashley’s main job is to get the word out about the program and find donors to help NMLC pay for their expenses. The entire morning at NMLC was spent learning about how the Welcome Center is run and how the Hospital works.
We received a tour of the Welcome Center and a powerpoint intro to the program from Ashley. This tour included the adorable tiny freshwater turtles in the waiting area, the messes behind the scenes, the lab for x-rays and blood work, and the store room for the public. The powerpoint gave us a ton of information about why and how seals and sea turtles become stranded on the Cape. Did you know that this past year there were mass stranding of Kemp Ridley sea turtles that filled all of the rehabilitation centers form the Cape down to Texas? One of the reasons for the mass stranding had to do the water temperature. The waters were warm, but turned really cold very quickly causing the turtles to go to the beach. The turtles stayed too long and got pushed further up shore by waves or got attacked by dogs/coyotes. The NMLC cared for 27 of the stranded Kemp's Ridley sea turtles stranded.
The second half of the day we got to learn about the hospital and how it runs. We learned about endless rules. A few are:
Always wear disinfected rain boots or crocs
Before entering another part of the hospital step into the disinfectant buckets
While doing dishes first wash with Dawn soap then soak in Navalson for ten minutes and rinse
While disinfecting anything spray it down, use Simple Green, and spray it down again
These rules are in place to keep each seals germs and diseases to themselves, but also to avoid transmitting diseases between humans and seals
The NMLC has two seals right now : Cilantro and Wasabi. Both are grey seals around the age of 4-6 months old. Wasabi was found with fishing line wrapped around his neck. He eventually grew into the rope and created a deep dash all the way around his neck, so eventually he would of grown into the rope so much it killed him. Wasabi is doing very well and is looking to be approved for release in the next month. Cilantro was found with a branding on his back. Only the West Coast brands their sea lions, but in Canada they brandman species of animals. Cilantro has E 58 branding on him and caused a deep bacterial infection. This is both a blessing and curse because he is very injured, but the nerves were killed around the branding so he does not feel any pain. Cilantro, unfortunately, is not doing as well as Wasabi and is still in dry holding. He is not eating or moving more than need.
The second chapter/next 10 pages told the readers about the origin of the word cod. No one really knows why cod is called cod, but there are some really interesting translations from several different countries of the word cod. In many countries cod most closely means prostitute and a reference to genitalia. It is completely unknown as to why this fish is called cod. The second half of the chapter focused on the modernization of eating cod: salted cod. Salted cod was easy to make and tasted delicious, so due to their long lasting freshness and taste cod became a staple food. Since back then there were no refrigerators people had to come up with new ways to keep food fresh. Salted meat of fish created a meal that could last for months.
