The Good, the Bad, and the Magical

I’m sorry it has been a while, but it has been a busy few weeks!

Like anything in life, we take the good with the bad here at Mote and that means that we have stayed busy in the stranding department!  Hatching season is in full force, which means that a lot of adorable baby turtles are flopping to the ocean.  Lights on the beach often confuse the youngsters, however, so they become disoriented and wind up in someone’s laundry room or a pavilion at a park, resulting in a lot of worried turtle lovers who call us.

One of our patients here at the lab.

The normal protocol for these little guys is to keep them at Mote for the day (stored in hatchling boxes – like a makeshift nest) until evening when the turtle patrol workers release them into the ocean.  Turtle patrol is important during nesting season, marking off every nest on the beach the morning after it’s laid, tracking nesting times, tracking hatchings, and digging up nests four days after the first hatch to make sure all the hatchlings have gotten out.  I have been lucky enough to watch a re-release and am still hoping to find a nest that’s actively hatching.  I also have gotten to see quite a few adorable babies – including one that we saved from a canal!

Of important note:  If you vacation or live on the coast where nesting happens, please keep your outdoor lights off! This helps prevent hatchling disorientation, as well as increasing the likelihood that adult females will nest on your beach!

We have also had a few calls about adult turtles that have died naturally and washed ashore.  Often by the time they get to shore, it’s difficult to tell what happened due to the level of decomposition, but sometimes we find clues.  Of late, we had a large male loggerhead stranded on a local beach and still alive.  Usually animals that beach themselves do so because they are sick and that was the case with this big boy, who died before we could get there.  A full necropsy was done but the results are still out.

Remember that I said the good comes with the bad around here?  Now the good:

In the last few weeks, we have released two rehabilitated turtles back into the wild!  Zora, a juvenile green turtle was rehabbed at Mote after being found floating in shallow waters with fibropapilloma, a viral disease common in green turtles that causes large, cauliflower-like tumors to grow internally and externally.  There is still a lot to be learned about this disease and no known cure, but in Zora’s case the tumors could be removed and she cleaned up nicely!

Snapper, a loggerhead turtle rehabbed from the oil spill, was also recently released.  Other than that, we are happy to say that, while not affected by the oil locally, we took in 11 Kemp’s Ridley turtles (the world’s smallest and rarest sea turtle and an endangered species) rescued from oily waters near Louisiana.  The turtles came from the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, where they received initial treatment.  As of today, five of them have been released and the others should be released soon!

I also recently went out with the manatee research team for a day. We worked in conjunction with an aerial survey plane looking for manatees from the air.  When we found the animals, we took a photo and drew documentation to visually ID the animals.  The team also gets genetic samples from skin to help see the diversity of the population.  I am learning a lot and getting to do a lot of different things!

I’m still having fun too.  Recently, my sister and brother in-law came to visit and we had a blast exploring Sarasota/Venice, finding shark teeth, and (of course) going to DISNEYWORLD!  We explored the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where I recommend the Butterbeer!  They did an awesome job of creating authentic storefronts, a castle, and the characters.  The tour through the castle ride was one of the best I have been on.   (Also, I recommend going to Ollivander’s to get your wand made – while only one in 30 get to actually do the wand experience, you’re reading the blog of that one!  One wand of oak with a dragon’s heart string, please!)

As you can tell, Florida is great and (luckily) hurricane season has been relatively calm so far – knock on wood!

Dolphins and Tigers and Rays – Oh My!

Hello, my Florida followers!

I have been here two weeks and still love every minute!  I started work on the 19th with a rousing morning of safety videos (such as “How to Use a Fire Extinguisher”) and lovely lab videos that began:  “Picture a lab where nothing is labeled and all chemicals are the same color…” and then explained ways to prevent blowing myself (and half of Florida) up!

The first day of work was good, though.  I met the people I would be working with and, while two other interns are here now, one left today and the other leaves in a week.  Soon I will be on my own.  Everyone is really nice and I felt at home right away.

I've made a lot of new friends in Florida so far.

The first part of the week was full of learning what I will do on a daily basis, figuring out where things were, and learning about the paperwork and data entry that power the operation.  I also learned some of the techniques that we do, like flensing (removing all meat and blubber from bones) and boiling bones to clean them.  Flensing is done in the lab after necropsies.  We save all the humorous bones of the sea turtles that have died in order to properly age them as part of the records for strandings, which gives us an idea of what is happening to the population and what kinds of animals get stranded or die.  It’s interesting and I’m happy I took anatomy!  I can also say that my knife skills are quickly sharpening (sorry – that one was too easy!).

It was a slow week, which was good because it gave me a chance to learn the little details rather than getting thrown into the grind.  Also, in some ways it is good when we don’t get calls because that means animals are not getting beached, injured, or dying.  As a newbie, however, I was anxious to get into the field and know how a strandings call worked – wearing my official Mote Marine Strandings  Investigations shirt, of course!

Little did I know what was to come…

Friday morning was the normal routine – data entry, then we were flensing some bones when the call I had been waiting for came in!  It was a beached dolphin – the first one since the previous September.  So we headed out to the beach and found the animal.  It was clearly dead and had washed ashore, but this was a big boy and it wasn’t going to be easy to get him up the beach and into the truck.  After documenting everything we needed to, we loaded the 475 pound (!) dolphin onto the sled (similar to a child’s) and towed him up the beach.

The fruits of my dive labors (or rather, the teeth).

It took five of us to get him off the beach and over the boardwalk, but luckily there weren’t too many gawkers since we were on a private area of beach.  We transported him back to Mote to perform a necropsy (animal autopsy).  The process of measuring, taking samples for histology, and disarticulating the skeleton (we save the skeletons for the bone museum here) took six hours but was one of the coolest things I have been a part of!

It was like everything you expect to see in a human – only supersized! (Just so you know, dolphins do have big hearts!)  While most people might be tired after pulling a 12 hour day, though, I spent the whole night on the beach turtle tagging, which was one of those “I never thought I would be here” experiences.  We tagged, measured, and recorded data from seven loggerhead sea turtles nesting on the beach.  That was one of the most amazing days of my life – what an awesome week in Florida!

There's nothing like catching the hometown team when you're away from home - especially with friends.

Needless to say, I spent the weekend making up for lost sleep and going to the beach.  I even went snorkeling and found a bunch of shells, a shark tooth, and a 4 inch dive knife!

The following work week was a little less intense. We received a few calls – mostly about turtles that were long dead and had washed ashore.  I did, however, make it out on Wednesday to watch the Detroit Tigers game in Tampa.  We got a little lost on the way there (thanks to my GPS!) but made it for most of the game.

(Note to anyone traveling in Florida – stock your car with plenty of extra change!  Not having money at toll booths is not a good thing!  Luckily we found some spare quarters buried beneath the seats.)

Unfortunately the Tigers lost, but it was still a lot of fun!  Suffice to say, I am having a great time here!

Full Circle

Hello from Florida!!

This is the life!!

I have finally arrived after months of waiting and a marathon of driving.  And when I say “marathon,” that’s really what I mean.  I drove down myself (with plenty of music and books on tape!) in a car packed to the brim with swimsuits, flip flops, and (yes) the occasional work outfit.

The trip took three days so as not to get too much cabin fever.  I stopped in Lexington, KY the first night to see family there.  The city is, of course, in a mad rush to prepare for the World Equestrian Games in September and rumor on the street is they have a lot of work still to do.  It was a nice break in the trip after 8 hours in the car, though.

Still, as much as I love horse country, the looming 11 hour drive was calling, so I left early from for the next stop in Gainesville, FL ,where a close friend and fellow Albion alumna, Kelyn, is also down in the Sunshine State for an internship.  It was the first time I had seen her since just after graduation so the stop was a great excuse to catch up.

The last leg of the journey was a short (!) 3 and a half hour drive to the beautiful Sarasota/ Venice area.  I arranged to live in a cute little rental house with plenty of room for me and guests, with the possibility of getting another intern to room with.  The area is beautiful and I rolled into the driveway on a sunny day, ready to begin the process of moving in all the random things necessary for real life (at least for the next few months in Florida).

Needless to say, it’s a bit tedious.

Mom and I at the Mote Marine Lab - my new home away from home.

As I’ve started the process, it brings back memories of that first day at Albion and moving into Wesley Hall four years ago.  I have the same nervous, anxious feelings about the complete change of life ahead.  The main difference about this move-in experience, however, was that after unpacking got a bit old, I decided to go to the beach.

(By the way, said beach is at the end of my road – Wesley Hall was great, but it never had that.)

I spent most of the time in the water, which is the perfect temperature and, after a good soak in the Gulf of Mexico (oil free), I headed home to finish unpacking and make the house ready for the all-important Mom visit.  (Of course Mom had to check out the place where her baby was living.)  I picked her up from the airport and excitedly rushed off toe Sarasota to Mote Marine Lab where I will work for the next few months.

They have a beautiful aquarium there, which I highly recommend!  It was a nice treat for my mom to get to see where I will spend a majority of my time and next we cruised downtown Sarasota, with its cute cafes, shops, and galleries.  Then we needed some time at the beach.  (Can you sense a theme here?)  It was another great day, even though the heat and humidity are pretty toasty (around 95 degrees each day).  

This is a shot from Siesta Key beach. (Get ready for a LOT of beach pictures in upcoming blogs!)

We went to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Siesta Key Beach, which is miles and miles of the softest, finest, whitest sand you have ever seen.  The waves were perfect for body surfing too!  And, because in Florida, there is no such thing as too much beach, we then took another soak at the home beach.  Later that night, we ate seafood at the pier at a place called Sharkies.  (The name refers to the ease with which people find shark teeth just by shifting though the sand.)  It was a great day that was topped off by meeting some of my fellow interns out in Sarasota.  (More on them to come.)

The last day of the Mom visit was spent at Myakka State Park, which has walking trails, a tree top canopy walk, as well as canoeing and kayaking.  We had a great time climbing up way above the treetops of the park and going on a 2 hour canoe ride through the gator-infested water!  (We did spot a handful of gators all of which sunk below the water when we approached, more annoyed than threatened by our presence.)

Here I am in the canopy.

All in all, it has been a great few days and I anxiously await my first day of work tomorrow.  More pictures and updates to come soon!