photo & link

as promised....a picture of ME @ the whale necropsy! please note the happiness in my face....hah. this was right before i cut out the rib! still amazing.....enjoy!




& here is a link to facebook to see ALL that i have been up to.....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2273836&id=26700157&l=d5461

happiness is a dead whale....

for me, anyway ??? grotesque, i know.

i was riding high after last wednesday's successful dolphin rescue when i headed into work at the stranding network on thursday. i was at the warehouse cleaning up the previous day's mess from all the mud and bloody dolphins when we got a call about THE WHALE. a large whale had stranded in eastham and was wedged in the ice. we threw our supplies in the trucks, loaded up the flatbed trailer and were on our way. we got to the beach just in time to watch the whale take it's last breath. it thrust it's flukes up in the air in an effort to free itself and looked at us with it's large eyes desperate for help....but really there was nothing we could do. the beach was on private property and they owners did not want to have large machinery in their yard. it was also a snowy morning, so all the large trucks from the DNR were being used for salting the roads, so there was no large machinery available anyway. if they were to have euthanized the animal, they would have had to move it right away due to laws about that...which was out of the question....so it is for the best that the whale died on its own. the thought was that it was the same whale that was swimming in wellfleet harbor the prior day, so that was a little disheartening, because we thought that it had swam back to safety. it was a beautiful animal, and i must admit it was a rush to be next to (& on top off at one point) such a large creature in the wild, even if it was dead. we headed back to the trucks and put on dry suits (a task in itself!) & went to work trying to remove the snow and ice from around the whale to get some blood and also some level A data (measurements, etc.). there is a great picture in the cape cod times of me & ct in dry suits digging out bloody slush from around the animal (someones gotta do it)....so check it out! i'm the one of the left: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090206/NEWS/902060322 there is also a photo gallery link if you scroll down a bit to the right, that has some great pictures of everyone working on the animal.
because the animal was lodged in the ice, the stranding network team decided that they would wait until the weekend when the weather was suppose to warm up to try and move the animal to do a necropsy. i was a little sad, because i was not going to be around during the weekend (as i was having a belated birthday celebration in rhode island!) but knew that they needed to do what was best for the whale. WELL....lucky for me (?), the weather didn't warm up and they planned to move the whale on monday and necropsy it on tuesday, so i would get to help! well...tuesday turned into wednesday and then into thursday -- TODAY! we attempted to move the whale on tuesday by pulling it out with a small boat, but the 40 ft. whale wouldn't budge! on wednesday, with the help of another boat and a full moon tide they successful moved the whale to first encounter beach and it was all set for a necropsy today.
i arrived at the beach at 7 am and got into my necropsy gear. there was a huge crane and 2 bulldozer-type machines to help move the different pieces of the whale once we cut it up. i was assigned the task of "additional cutter" -- and i was super nervous! the only thing i have cut (besides fetal pigs and a dead cat during school) were some dolphin intestines....so helping with a whole whale seemed pretty daunting. my boss, katie, told me to grab a knife and be aggressive and get in there, but i was apprehensive and started by using a meat hook to peel back blubber and skin for others to cut. it was by luck that somone left the whale for a second and left their KNIFE right in front of me. they needed help cutting out the ribs, so i took that as my chance to cut and I CUT OUT A WHALE RIB! i was very proud of myself....& it was pretty awesome, to say the least. i then ended up cutting out a lot of muscle in the peduncle part (or tail stalk). the coolest (?) thing was that they found worms in the kidneys....& when i say worms, i mean they needed to get buckets to transfer these massive things to the samlping station. it was actually pretty gross, but it's amazing what you can find in these animals, or just in bodies in general. this is where my love of disection stems from....not just that i am morbid and enjoy playing with dead things. anyway....we were racing against the tide to get the whale dismembered and buried....but we won, and may the fin whale now rest in peace at first encounter beach under the sand. it was such an experience, i could have not asked for a cooler thing to be a part of. i feel very fortunate!

attempting to move the whale on tuesday....

the whale being held up by a crane to inspect for human interaction....

starting the necropsy.....

(i will spare you all any really gross pictures)

hopefully a few more pics to come, too. (of me with the whale!)

RESCUE!

WHAT A DAY! i spent the day helping to save four common dolphins that stranded in wellfleet this morning. we got a call from ethan, one of our service partners who is a shellfisherman in wellfleet, while we were getting ready for service (I had COD day today). he told us that there was a whale swimming around near the harbor pier and the tide was going out. the majority of the house wanted to see the whale, so we threw on some clothes and headed to the pier. we couldn't see much more than the spout from it's blowhole and sometimes it's dorsal fin. we also saw a small pod of dolphins in the distance, but we were more concerned about the whale, who was swimming further into duck creek in the wellfleet harbor while the tide was receeding quickly. we were freezing, so some of us ran home to get warmer clothes to prepare to help the whale -- just in case! during the 20 minutes we were back at the house, the whale safely swam back to deeper water and the dolphins we saw in the distance stranded! people earlier had seen 4 dolphins, but could only find 3....so meg & brian went on a dolphin hunt and found the last one in some muck waaaay up in duck creek. we showed up with our waders and were excited to help! brian was already out by the dolphin with one of the stranding network volunteers, tracy. tim was making his way out and me, meg and amanda were close behind. meg & amanda never made it out....& i barely did. the muck was relentless and did not want us to help. immediately i was on my butt & struggling to stand up again. i fell 4 more times before making it to the dolphin and my blue coat and green waders were now brown. once at the dolphin we made a plan to have two people bring it closer to the water, since we were all struggling with the muck. we got the dolphin in a stretcher and tracy and tim were bringing it closer for brian and i to help. misty, from the stranding network showed up and also helped. i, ultimately, was left behind because i kept getting stuck in the muck. BOO. but the dolphin was successfully taken to the stranding network truck to be looked over. once i was freed from the muck, we all made our way over to chipman's cove to help the 3 other stranded dolphins. we were some of the first people on the scene again and i was pumped full of adrenaline and not really sure what to do -- even though this is what i have been learning about for the last 4 months! i quickly got focused and everyone started digging out the pectoral fins so the dolphins would be in a more comfortable position. i then started filling out health assessments for each of the animals while my fellow americorps-ers were busy being AMAZING and making sure the animals were experiencing the least amount of stress possible and keeping them warm with blankets. the stranding network showed up with their HUGE IFAW trailer and we were in business. we rolled each dolphin into a stretcher and carried them up individually to the trailer. once all four were in, we had a 10 car caravan (including a police escort!) up to Ptown, to release the dolphins into the atlantic ocean at herring cove beach. volunteers from the provincetown center of coastal studies and the new england aquarium in boston showed up to help! it was quite amazing to see so many people wanting to help these dolphins. each animal had 5-6 people carrying them on the stretchers and we all walked into the ocean together and on the count of 3 released all 4 of the dolphins together and they were off swimming! it was such a big accomplishment to have helped save these helpless animals....and to FINALLY get some hands on experience through the stranding network. they really appreciated our help today, too. there are a few pictures and a video online if you click on this: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090204/NEWS/90204027

i am in the 2nd picture in the black with the headband. i am not really in the video because i was taking down health info....but all the young people are AMERICORPS! represent :)

strategizing how to help the first dolphin in duck creek....

carrying up the first dolphin......i am left behind.....

me surveying the the other 3 stranded dolphins......

americorps kids providing supportive care to the dolphins....

our americorps group right before we released the dolphins back in the ocean.....

the PLAGUE.

SO.....here i am....my first blog as a 25 year old. SCARY. my birthday was pretty low key. went to my IP at the stranding network. meredith, amie & korinda came & had lunch with me and jane from the stranding network made me a cake! got to check on a seal in orleans on my way home. ate some dinner. watched a movie. nice & relaxing.....getting ready for a crazy weekend in rhode island. enter 4 am friday morning. 2 girls had stayed home on thursday deathly ill with the stomach flu. i had been psyching myself out that i wasn't feeling well either, but everyone was telling me that it was just in my head. so, it was my luck that at 4 am i woke up in a panic to make it to the bathroom. i made it! and all consecutive times as well. yeehaw. i went downstairs to lay around until amanda got up so i could tell her that i would not be doing service that day. (i wanted to rest up for the weekend!) much to my surprise....my roommate, erin followed me down a few minutes later & went straight for a couch in the living room. i had no clue that she had been stricken with THE PLAGUE as we had missed each other in passing while running to the bathrooms in the dark. amie had also been throwing up all night....so we had a total of FIVE people home sick on friday (lisa & sam were still recovering). we couldn't decide what to do about the get away to RI, because i still wanted to go even though i was sick. meredith called her aunt and got it OKed to go this weekend. so, i relaxed and munched on saltines all day and sat in front of the TV. the healthy people that went to service on friday decided that since they already had bags packed for the weekend, that they would go to boston to stay away from us sickies. good idea. saturday morning i went downstairs and discovered a body on the couch....it was alex. he had driven all the way to boston only to get sick and drive all the way back to wellfleet -- while puking. so, he joined us to make 6 sickies in the living room. we heard later in the day that greg, who was staying at the bourne house for the weekend, also got sick, making the total 7. amanda was great and got us pedialyte to keep hydrated and monica drove us to the store to get more saltines, soup and popsicles. we were all feeling better on sunday and it was GORGEOUS out, so i even took a walk on the fire trails behind the house. sunday night we were enjoying (?) the super bowl when amanda disappeared....into the bathroom. she had succumbed to THE PLAGUE as well....which was fitting since she was the one who originally brought the bug to us a few weeks ago after hanging out with some elementary school kids. monday was chore day....so all toilets, tubs and sinks have been bleached. amanda is feeling better and no one else has gotten sick! (cross your fingers).
on monday we served with the Cape Cod National Sea Shore fire crew chainsawing and burning brush piles. we are removing non native species to try and re-establish the original ecosystem of the park. right now there about 120 trees per acre of land and they want to end up with about 20 trees per acre....we have a lot to do! i am still nervous about chainsawing, but i ended up cutting 4 trees down and limbing a lot of stuff. it was great weather and the huge brush fire kept us warm as well. it was a long, hard day of work and i am still sore tonight!
today the snow came! a big difference from the sunny, 40 degree weather of yesterday. it was cold and windy and SNOWY...for the cape. this is nothing compared to wisconsin. but, i left my IP early, since i have to commute 45 minutes home and the wind was suppose to pick up. a few other people got done early, too....so we took advantage of the snow and went sledding down the driveway and front yard....and then popped our inner tube on some green briar. fun over.
so, now i am healthy & looking forward to THIS weekend in rhode island. it's suppose to be 48 degrees there on saturday...CRAZINESS!

stay warm.
much love.
A


i made it to the bottom of the drive way!....

it's a long way down.....

me starting to de-limb a tree.....