Latest news with #MysticAquarium
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated seals in Rhode Island
MYSTIC, Conn. (WWLP) – Mystic Aquarium released six gray seals back into their natural habitat in Westerly, Rhode Island, Tuesday morning following weeks of rehabilitation care. Aquarium officials stated that these seals were rescued on Block Island between late March and early April when they were found entangled in fishing gear and marine debris. Mystic Aquarium's animal care professionals gave each gray seal individualized treatment within the Animal Rescue Program across the following six to eight weeks. Second Chance Animal Services seek foster families for pregnant pets Now fully rehabilitated, the seals were brought to Wuskenau Town Beach to be released into the Atlantic Ocean. Mystic Aquarium staff invited staff and volunteers from the Block Island Maritime Institute, as well as New Haven police officers who helped rescue Chappy the seal back in February, to open the kennels and guide the seals into the ocean. 'Releasing these six seals back into their natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean following nearly two months of rehabilitation is a true testament to Mystic Aquarium's care and compassion for these animals,' said Sarah Callan, Animal Rescue Program Manager at Mystic Aquarium. 'As entanglement cases continue to increase in line with upticks in seal populations, our team cherishes the opportunity to help these animals and strengthen marine ecosystems up and down the East Coast.' To date in 2025, Mystic's Animal Rescue Program has rescued and rehabilitated 24 seals so far. This program costs $600,000 annually, with expenses such as supplies, medications, salt water for rehab pools, transportation, and other essentials. Due to recent funding cuts, only two of the seals released on Wednesday were able to be fitted with satellite tags–the last two in the aquarium's current inventory. To learn more or to donate, visit WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
12-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Cause of death to remain unknown for minke whale carcass that washed ashore in East Providence, R.I.
A very putrid smelling whale carcass washed up on the shore of Bold Point Park. The RI DEM was notified and Mystic Aquarium was notified to investigate cause of death. Posted by But how exactly the mammal – likely a juvenile – may have died will remain a mystery, said Sarah Callan, the aquarium's manager of animal rescue, on Monday. Advertisement The same carcass was reported across the bay in Providence in January, but with limited access to the water there, crews were not able to move it, Dodge said. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Kim Keough, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, confirmed in an email the animal was 'the same minke whale observed in the area over the winter during the Providence River barge removal operations.' 'At this point, it has moved a little bit farther, but it's four months old – severely decomposed,' Callan said Monday. 'We wouldn't get any viable samples,' Callan added. The whales are common in the waters off Rhode Island. However, Callan said since 2017, elevated numbers of minke whale mortalities have occurred, part of what's been called an Advertisement According to the In the last eight years, there have been 14 dead minke whales in Rhode Island alone, Callan said. A lot of them were clearly struck by vessels, although others have shown signs of infectious disease, she said. 'Unfortunately, this [most recent] one's going to kind of be a mystery because you kind of have to piece together a lot of different things to build the case,' she said. Experts were not able to determine the sex of the whale, as researchers typically have to check the underside of the animal as well as the internal reproductive organs to confirm, Callan said. According to Keough, the whale carcass will remain where it is. 'Given the slow but continuous decomposition over the past several colder months, officials have determined that the most appropriate course of action is to allow the whale to decompose naturally in place,' Keough wrote. 'Removal or burial is not feasible due to the whale's advanced decomposition and its current location. A necropsy would yield limited information about the cause of death, as significant time has passed since the initial stranding.' Dodge reminded the public that although the whale is deceased, it remains protected by the federal 'Marine Mammal Protection Act,' which prohibits people from approaching or touching the animal and from harvesting anything from it. Christopher Gavin can be reached at
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Dead whale found in East Providence
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A dead whale was found near Bold Point Park in East Providence Sunday morning. A spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) told 12 News they received a report around 8 a.m. of the whale being found. Mystic Aquarium have been notified, according to the DEM spokesperson, and will conduct a necropsy to determine the cause of death. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
New Haven students have animals in mind during Lighthouse Point beach cleanup
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — If you are heading to the beach on this sunny Wednesday, the sand at Lighthouse Point in New Haven is now a lot cleaner. Students at a local magnet school spent their morning picking up garbage, but they were doing so to benefit the animals, not humans. Bit by bit, the beach Lighthouse Point got a lot cleaner thanks to the students of Benjamin Jepson Magnet School. For weeks, they've been learning about marine animals and the challenges facing them. Sea turtle at Mystic Aquarium gets prosthetic harness to help him swim 'I don't want them to die just because of plastic, so we decided to help Mystic Aquarium a lot of money so they could help out,' Jepson seventh-grader Domenica Leon said. The school raised $3,800 for the animal rehabilitation program at Mystic Aquarium. 'Cleaning up our beaches, getting that marine debris off the beaches is one of the things that is really going to help animals that are in Long Island Sound,' Shelagh Smith, a program specialist at Mystic Aquarium, said. Cleaning up a beach is always good work, but there's also a good reason this school chose to learn about marine wildlife and their environment. A high-profile visitor to New Haven earlier this year really sealed the deal. Chappy, a seal found on a New Haven street, dies at Mystic Aquarium In the middle of February, a baby seal ended up in the middle of Chapel Street. They named him Chappy and took him to Mystic Aquarium. Unfortunately, he was sick and didn't last long, but he had a big impact on the Elm City. 'Since Chappy the seal came up here, we were very confused by that and we wanted to research why that was happening,' eighth-grader Zaria Reyes said. 'So, every year we do a Jepson day of justice, and we pick a cause that we'd like to learn about and raise money for,' explained Jepson Magnet Resource Teacher Barbara Wickwire. 'We were definitely inspired by the story of Chappy because he was basically in the backyard of our school.' Chappy was just one of many and many kinds of animals that Mystic tries to nurse back to health. 'A lot of work at trying to get those animals healthy again and re-released back out into their natural habitat, and while we do that, we can collect amazing information,' Smith said. The hope is fewer animals will need help with less garbage on the beaches and in the water of Long Island Sound. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mystic Aquarium released 22 rehabilitated sea turtles back into the wild on Jekyll Island
It is not unusual this time of year for Georgia's beaches to be filled with Spring Breakers from northern states seeking sunshine and warmth, but a special group of travelers arrived from Connecticut last Wednesday. Mystic Aquarium's Animal Rescue Program and its partners at Jekyll Island's Georgia Sea Turtle Center released 22 juvenile sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean on April 10. The cohort of turtles represented three endangered species—14 green sea turtles, six loggerheads and two critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles—all found washed up and cold-stunned on Cape Cod, Massachusetts last fall when water temperatures in Cape Cod Bay dropped below 50 degrees. Sarah Callan, program manager of Mystic Aquarium's Animal Rescue Program, explained that with climate change, northern waters are experiencing more abrupt rather than gradual drops in temperatures, higher wind conditions and swifter currents. 'Cape Cod Bay is a really unique geographical area, because lots of sea turtles go into the bay to feed, and once that temperature starts to drop, they have to swim north to get back down south to get out of the bay,' said Callan. 'A lot of the smaller turtles—the ones we see are mostly juveniles—don't have the strengths to fight those winds and currents…before the cold snap hits.' As reptiles, the turtles cannot regulate their body temperatures and go into a hypothermic state with slowed heart rates, shallow breathing, confusion, and inability to swim. Marine biologists from the New England Aquarium in Boston triaged the sea turtles, stabilized the ones they could save and transported them two hours to Mystic, Connecticut, where Callan described the slow process of re-elevating each turtles' temperatures into the 70-degree range and gently reintroducing food to allow their systems to acclimate. 'When they first come in, we have little surfboards for them. They're like foam squares that we cut out because many of them are too weak to even swim on their own, but you want to keep them buoyant in the water to some degree and getting their body used to swimming again.' Each turtle's rehabilitation plan was individualized, based on medical tests that looked for underlying infections and other issues. This contingent of 22 turtles representing three different species was historic for the Animal Rescue Program—the largest and most diverse it has handled at one time in its 50-year history of covering more than a thousand miles of coastline in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Fisher's Island, New York. 'The conservation impact that we can have on these wild populations is huge,' said Callan. 'When you think about rehabbing and releasing one sea turtle, that turtle can lay thousands of eggs in its lifetime.' When the turtles were ready for their natural habitat again, Callan said they had to find a suitable release site with the right water temperatures and plenty of food sources. Jekyll Island, just off Brunswick, Georgia proved ideal. Working in partnership with other sea turtle and rescue organizations, Mystic Transportation carried the turtles in temperature-controlled vehicles 20 hours south along the I-95 corridor. Once at Jekyll, biologists and volunteers with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center helped set the turtle bins along the water line. The larger turtles were able to power across the sand with their flippers to catch a wave. The smaller turtles were carried into the water and let go. Salt Life: Tybee Island Marine Science Center to unveil new exhibits that combine art and education Cradle to the Ocean: Sea turtle hatchling heads into the ocean from first nest of the season on Tybee Island Although they have a better chance for survival now, the turtles still face perils beyond being prey for sharks and other large predators, namely getting entangled in fishing line, nets and ropes as well as ingesting plastics, something Callan is seeing more and more of with other sea life such as seals, dolphins and whales. Necropsies provide some of the most valuable information regarding the health of our oceans and waterways. 'There's tons of pollution out there in terms of marine debris,' Callan said, but she recently had two seals test positive for a parasite that affects animals' nervous systems that can be contracted only from opossum feces, which means that parasite is getting into the ocean through runoff into waterways. 'Think about pollutants and the things we spray on our lawns. All the sort of toxins that's going right into the waters, the fish are eating it, and we're essentially ingesting that, too. So, I think that people sometimes just assume we're dealing with the health of animals, but it really is the health of the entire ocean and how that's also affecting people.' Callan cautioned against being overwhelmed, however, noting that more than 40 volunteers helped with the rehabilitation of the 22 sea turtles released last week. 'It's really important that people start to take individual action to help the environment. In the end, that's what's going to make the most difference.' Amy Paige Condon is a content coach, editor and reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at ACondon@ This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: 22 endangered sea turtles released on Jekyll Island Georgia
