Animal Care Update

[Lisa Becker]

Dear wonderful volunteers,

thank you all very much for your patience this spring while NMLC has been going through some transitions.

April/May would normally be the time for us to hold our annual harbor seal season volunteer meeting, provide hands on training, create pup feed schedules, and admit stranded pups from anywhere along the coast between Maine and New York. We know that many of you look forward to the pup season each year, and thus we understand that this update comes unexpectedly. Leadership shared with staff this week that we are closed to seal pups (all species) this year. This includes the ongoing harbor seal pup season, any other pups at this time and grey seal pups that are born in November/December. We are currently awaiting updates regarding other age classes as well as updates regarding our HVAC repair in the patient ward. As soon as we have more information and details regarding this change, we will share it with you right away.

If you would like to come in and help with Eclipse in the meantime, please don't hesitate to do so. Eclipse is slowly but surely improving, yet has some ways to go. His condition was critical upon arrival and his recovery has been taking a lot out of him. He is currently in Seal Enclosure, starting to exercise more in the pool while going through healing of his lung tissue and wounds. His jaw, shoulder and flipper trauma has prevented him from eating on his own yet, but he will hopefully do so soon. Our partners in Delaware would like to send another heartfelt thank you to all of you for caring so well for and supporting Eclipse's recovery.

Updates from the field:

The regional stranding network continues to be very busy this spring with dozens of entangled grey seals along the coast, many of those stranding on Block Island, RI and Nantucket, MA. Some harbor seal pups have already been admitted to rehabilitation in Maine and New York and Maine is gearing up for more to come. Continuous dolphin strandings, especially in New England, have been keeping our network partners very busy, with another mass stranding that happened in Salem, MA this week. Last but not least, there is always something unique about each season. This spring it is a harp seal pup that was recently admitted to Marine Mammals of Maine. The last harp seal pup that was born in our region and was brought to rehabilitation was Nymphodora Tonks, a harp seal pup in 2019, that was brought to NMLC for rehabilitation and released in New Hampshire a few weeks later.

All the best,

Lisa

Lisa Becker, M.Sc.

Director, Marine Wildlife Rehabilitation
National Marine Life Center
P.O. Box 269, 120 Main Street
Buzzards Bay, MA 02532-0269
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office (508) 743-9888
cell (628) 999-3743
lbe...@nmlc.org

www.nmlc.org

Please note that I may not be able to check emails daily, as I may be in the hospital caring for critical patients in rehabilitation. If you have an urgent matter must reach me immediately, please call my cell phone at 628-999-3743.