Rescued again!

Thought I would update with another happy ending for some dolphins in Wellfleet. On Tuesday, we received a call at IFAW that there were 3 dolphins stranded behind the Wellfleet Audobon society. Of course the tide was going out and OF COURSE it had to be raining. Surprisingly, it wasn't too cold. We were short volunteers, so I called up some of my fellow AmeriCorps-ers and Amie, Greg, Alex, Brian and Crystal came to aid in the rescue efforts! We came upon the scene and found 3 atlantic white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus acutus, if we want to be scientific) that looked to a be a little family. There was a HUGE male (poppa) that was about 8 ft long and 600 lbs, a medium sized female (mama) and a "baby" that was about 5 ft. long. Check them out:

Being low tide in Wellfleet meant stinky, mucky mud was going to be working against us. More than once I fell over or lost my footing. It didnt help that the waders I was wearing were waaay too big for me. Needless to say, it took awhile to move the animals out of the mud flats and onto more stable ground. Here we are moving the BIG guy....

Once all animals were out of the muck, we had to transfer them to the IFAW rescue trailer, to transport them up to Herring Cove in Provinceown. This is also where we took the dolphins back in February. Luckily, IFAW has constructed a "dolphin cart" that makes moving the animals a lot better. It's basically a big wagon to put the animals on and cart wherever we need to. This is especially helpful when you have a 600 lb animal and not a lot of hands.

After all the animals were in the trailer, they took blood samples and did some ultrasound to check for traumas to the digestive tract (thats the body system that they are laying on when they are stranded....so a lot of the times dolphins get gassy!) We then met the trailer up in Ptown where we were greeted with some nasty weather and HUGE waves. We had gathered some more people to help from the Ptown Center for Coastal Studies, but were short on dry suits, so we decided to release the female and baby first and then follow with the large male. I, in my waders, was positioned in the back of the stretcher carrying the baby dolphin. Our group walked into the water simultaneously with the group carrying the female. CT (my IP guy) was watching waves and told us when to walk in. It seemed calm for a moment, so off we went, he counted to 3 and the front people dropped the stretcher, while it was my job to hang on to it & pull it out from under the animal. Just as this all happened, a huge wave crashed in and knocked us all over, which essentially wasn't a big deal because it helped me pull the stretcher out, but it also caused me to fall in the water -- and I wasn't wearing a dry suit! The ocean is not warm at this time of year, I would not recommend swimming at this time.

Anyway.....the mom & baby found each other and started to swim off as we prepared to get the big guy in the water. More waves crashed down on the rescuers, but he was successfully released and hopefully found the other two!

I also have a link to the video/article posted online at the Cape Cod Times. I would just like to point out that we were at the audobon at 2 pm -- not 4! Some people wrote some nasty comments about that, but the Times got it wrong. IFAW is dedicated to responding quickly to stranded marine mammals, and I get frusterated that the public sometimes is very eager to point out every flaw....especially since all that stuff with the manatee happened. UGH.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090422/NEWS/904220336/-1/NEWS01

Well...enjoy. I just posted IFAW pictures, so I will hope to put some of mine up here soon as well!

Take care!

ABBEY

SPRING!

so....i have been slacking. i apologize.
spring break was AMAZING! like i said, i ventured to our neighbor to the north -- MONTREAL with alex for 5 nights. we stayed in the latin quarter, right near down town, right off of the popular street "Rue Saint Denis" in a hostel (my first time!). it was great. we had our own room overlooking the street, a big bed (a big deal now that i sleep in a bunk bed) and a TV! it was pretty much a little hotel room (it was a REALLY small room) for about the price of a hotel room for 1 night for the whole week! we really lucked out.
we also lucked out with the weather. it was sunny & low 40s most of the time, but it was really chilly the first full day we were there, so we took the subway to McGill University downtown to check out a free (!!!) museum that had some mummies and walk around campus. it had some great views of the city:

because of the chilly weather, we also hung around the underground city that is part of the subway system in montreal. it's pretty much a big underground mall, so alex wasn't that excited about it, but i thought it was pretty cool. that night we went out to a hookah bar around the corner from our hostel to smoke some shisha & shared a pitcher of canadian beer, eh. it was the ONLY night we went out. party animals.

our next adventure was to the BIODOME and botanical gardens that is housed in the old olympic park. the biodome was really cool and recreated 4 different eco systems. the best was OBVIOUSLY the rainforest. lots of little tropical critters running around. it ended with an arctic ecosystem and there were peguins! pretty cute. we then headed to the botanical gardens, which was pretty much a bust, because there was nothing in bloom (there was still some snow on the ground) but they had a greenhouse that had a butterfly exhibit with butterflies EVERYWHERE flying around. it was amazing:

we walked around old montreal, which included a visit to the notre dame! now....most of you know, i avoid stepping into churches.....but it was quite exquisite. i was actually more enthralled with this carving in a small nave behind the main sanctuary. it was just very organic and seemed very nature oriented. it was gorgeous:



a personal favorite of both of ours were stopping in random cafes and shops for yummy treats! my favorite was ham & cheese crossiants. we stopped and had a little picnic in old montreal while walking around. this is alex enjoying some sort of salami sandwich:

& this is me when we were walking around old port:

our greatest feat was walking to the top of mont royal, the highest point in the city. it is a law that any buildings built in the city can not be higher than mont royal. we walked through the slush zig-zagging up the mountain and came to a great look-out with this panoramic view of the city. definitely worth the trek up!:

even though we did a lot of sightseeing, we also did a lot of relaxing, which was just what i needed! but it has proved difficult to get back into my old routine. we have been doing a lot of outdoor projects, now that it is getting nice out. we spent some time clearing a herring run in harwich and planting beach grass in brewster. for COD day we are busy planning for AmeriCorps Week which happens in the middle of may. we are helping clear invasives at taylor bray farm, which is a place that i love dearly, not just for the property and people that run it, but also for the animals! the sheep just had some little lambs and the goats are always eager to greet people!

& also because of the nice weather, i have had the opportunity to watch some amazing sunsets over the bay. it is my goal to watch a sunrise before i leave!

so, you have been caught up! it is definitely spring here. it has been raining a LOT! and it rains all day. this is not fun when you are working outside and trying to "get things done". today was the start of "BLITZ WEEK" which is an annual americorps project here that engages school groups at a conservation property in harwich. we spent the morning with some high school students clearning invasives, which was cut short due to the rain. i will be back to the property on wednesday to do some environmental enducation and then again on friday doing more invasive removal. busybusyBUSY!

thanks for reading :)

peace,

A