Listening to: Phantom of the Opera
Mood: Extremely sore (not really a mood, but...)
Yesterday was such an incredible day, I don't even know how to start! I guess I should explain how I ended up helping to save whales, since I only found out about it a few days ago anyway. As I've said before, my friend Megan and I took multiple classes through the MMC (marine mammal conservancy), including basic training, in order to volunteer in case of any dolphin or whale strandings. While I was visiting home, that's when the mass stranding of pilot whales (I believe 22 in all) occurred. I wouldn't have known about it, if Megan hadn't said that they still need volunteers to help out. Apparently the whales (currently 4 females) will be held at the Key Largo facility for at least a few months, as they're sick and need rehabilitation, and also need to be held until all the paperwork is concluded. I plan to go back next week and help if I can. Of the 22 whales, I think 13 survived, and these animals were distributed among different rehab facilities along the east coast. If I remember correctly, the MMC already released 2 of the pilot whales, so I guess we had 6 earlier. The MMC is the only facility in the world that rehabilitates animals in natural water...kind of a lagoon, rather than pools. Since its beginning, 150 animals have been successfully rescued.
So anyways, about my particular experience, I signed up for a 12:00-4:00 shift on Wednesday, and drove down to Key Largo that morning, which took about an hour and a half. It's such a nice drive though, and the weather is always nice there! Once I arrived (I've never seen so many cars in the parking lot) it was kind of mass chaos. I wasn't sure where to go, but I asked this one girl who I ended up teaming up with, and she pointed me to the volunteer check-in tent. I signed in, and was told that there wasn't a guarantee that I would get in the water. So I stood around, waiting for the briefing we would get if we did get in the water, and ended up talking to this one lady who told me I could go pick out a wetsuit. I found one, and many minutes later (they are so hard to pull on), I was ready to go. One of the staff had us circle around him and gave us information on how to handle the whales (I already knew this from the class), to give their heads and flukes a wide birth, as they're 600-800 lbs solid muscle. Pilot whales are actually a type of dolphin, but they're pretty large, and as they are a member of the 'black' species, a bit more aggressive. We were told to keep our hands out of the water, especially in front of their eyes, because our fingers would look like their favorite food, squid. Also, we were told to 'ride the bull' if one tried to escape, as it was safer than letting go. My imagination went into overdrive and I imagined myself holding on for dear life to this whale that broke out into open water. We also had to be extremely quiet once we got to the water, because the whales hear at high frequencies, and would be anxious to hear a lot of low rumbling. I had to keep reminding myself that they were wild, and had never seen humans before. If I were them, I'd be freaked out too!
So naturally, once we passed beyond a fence, we had to be quiet. We sat and waited for at least an hour, because Rob the current supervisor (he's the head honcho too-he taught my classes) was doing tests on one of them. The four whales were currently floating freely around, inside the makeshift pen. Closer to shore, in the shallow water, two tents were set up that they would be brought under, to keep from getting sunburned. This is where we held them. Finally, I was selected as part of a team to help hold one of the females, #303. I was very nervous, but I forced myself to relax, because whales can sense your anxiety, and will tense up as well. I was placed on one side, in primary position, which is having one hand on the dorsal fin, the other on the pectoral fin, and supporting the body with my inner thigh. I was amazed by the fact that all I could feel was solid muscle. If she wanted to, this whale could seriously hurt me. Two other people were with me, and our job was to basically keep her wet, from drying out, and her blowhole above the water, so she could breathe. A little later, the girl I had met earlier was teamed with me. Her name was Lena, and she was from Hawaii. It was coincidence she was there, as she had been visiting the Bahamas to check out wild dolphins there, as she owns a sort of 'swim with dolphins' business on the big island. She was super sweet and we just kind of hung out holding up this massive animal. Our particular whale had respiratory problems, so she wasn't taking full deep breaths, and I didn't help much at first, as I accidentally didn't time my wetting right and got some water in her blowhole. She was okay though. I did get sprayed in the face a couple times, making me smell oily afterward. It wasn't as strong as I thought, but they do smell a bit like an engine because their blubber has to be oiled, expecially around the blowhole. She also fartetd on me. Luckily I didn't get peed or pooped on though. Hey, few people can say they've been farted on by a whale.
The whole experience was awesome. I was suprised how soft she was, and she behaved very well. I got to hold her while Lena checked her pulse, and then we did a breath rate test. Then it was feeding time! We held her while senior staff basically had to insert a tube of fish gruel down her throat. I give them kudos, because I wouldn't want to stick my fist down a whale's throat, especially one with a lot of front teeth. She was also fed some tiny fish, and did very well. I believe she was of teenager age, but wasn't doing as well as a couple of the others. There was another female with really bad sunburn, and a calf as well. The calf will kept in captivity for the rest of her life, as her parents both died, and she will never learn the necessities to survive in the wild. The teenagers won't be able to teach her. For now, they seem to be getting better. We shall see! There were a couple people taking photos of us, and possibly someone from National Geographic, but I know that most of the news crews were there the previous week, so attention has died down somewhat.
I was in the water for about two hours, and did start to get cold, and my hands hurt from being in the same position, but there was no chance in hell I was letting go! Eventually, Lena and I were replaced to give other volunteers a chance, and we sat watching for a bit, and once we weren't needed, climbed out of our wetsuits (the hardest and most akward part of the day), signed out, and said goodbye. I also received a large 'x' on my hand, as I am quarantined for 72 hours to not visit any zoo, animal facility, or park, in case a spread some unknown disease from the pilot whales. The 'x' will cause admissions to turn me out.
Finally, I drove on home, listening to Backstreet Boys with the windows down, and got home early, allowing me to head to the gym for hip-hop class, which started up. Of course, on the program, they left out 'aerobic' hip-hop. Naturally, it was intense. It was a lot of fun though, and I was pretty proud of myself that I could keep up. I was afraid because there was this Asian kid next to me (Asians are awesome hip-hop dancers) and a tall girl on the other side, but the girl was terrible at rhythmn and the guy tired out even earlier than I did! So yeah, I'm awesome. Of course, today I woke up, and my butt is so sore, I can barely sit! Oh well, I guess it's good for me :)
Classes also started this week. I had marine chemistry (oh the joy) and tonight I have marine mammals, so that should be good! And tomorrow, back to hanging out with the med students!
Below I have some pictures I took at the MMC. We were not allowed to take pics beyond a certain point, so you can't see any of the whales. However, here's an article Megan posted about the rescue effort. You can see some of the whales in this article.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/05/16/away-from-spotlight-whale-rescue-effort-continues/
Mood: Extremely sore (not really a mood, but...)
Yesterday was such an incredible day, I don't even know how to start! I guess I should explain how I ended up helping to save whales, since I only found out about it a few days ago anyway. As I've said before, my friend Megan and I took multiple classes through the MMC (marine mammal conservancy), including basic training, in order to volunteer in case of any dolphin or whale strandings. While I was visiting home, that's when the mass stranding of pilot whales (I believe 22 in all) occurred. I wouldn't have known about it, if Megan hadn't said that they still need volunteers to help out. Apparently the whales (currently 4 females) will be held at the Key Largo facility for at least a few months, as they're sick and need rehabilitation, and also need to be held until all the paperwork is concluded. I plan to go back next week and help if I can. Of the 22 whales, I think 13 survived, and these animals were distributed among different rehab facilities along the east coast. If I remember correctly, the MMC already released 2 of the pilot whales, so I guess we had 6 earlier. The MMC is the only facility in the world that rehabilitates animals in natural water...kind of a lagoon, rather than pools. Since its beginning, 150 animals have been successfully rescued.
So anyways, about my particular experience, I signed up for a 12:00-4:00 shift on Wednesday, and drove down to Key Largo that morning, which took about an hour and a half. It's such a nice drive though, and the weather is always nice there! Once I arrived (I've never seen so many cars in the parking lot) it was kind of mass chaos. I wasn't sure where to go, but I asked this one girl who I ended up teaming up with, and she pointed me to the volunteer check-in tent. I signed in, and was told that there wasn't a guarantee that I would get in the water. So I stood around, waiting for the briefing we would get if we did get in the water, and ended up talking to this one lady who told me I could go pick out a wetsuit. I found one, and many minutes later (they are so hard to pull on), I was ready to go. One of the staff had us circle around him and gave us information on how to handle the whales (I already knew this from the class), to give their heads and flukes a wide birth, as they're 600-800 lbs solid muscle. Pilot whales are actually a type of dolphin, but they're pretty large, and as they are a member of the 'black' species, a bit more aggressive. We were told to keep our hands out of the water, especially in front of their eyes, because our fingers would look like their favorite food, squid. Also, we were told to 'ride the bull' if one tried to escape, as it was safer than letting go. My imagination went into overdrive and I imagined myself holding on for dear life to this whale that broke out into open water. We also had to be extremely quiet once we got to the water, because the whales hear at high frequencies, and would be anxious to hear a lot of low rumbling. I had to keep reminding myself that they were wild, and had never seen humans before. If I were them, I'd be freaked out too!
So naturally, once we passed beyond a fence, we had to be quiet. We sat and waited for at least an hour, because Rob the current supervisor (he's the head honcho too-he taught my classes) was doing tests on one of them. The four whales were currently floating freely around, inside the makeshift pen. Closer to shore, in the shallow water, two tents were set up that they would be brought under, to keep from getting sunburned. This is where we held them. Finally, I was selected as part of a team to help hold one of the females, #303. I was very nervous, but I forced myself to relax, because whales can sense your anxiety, and will tense up as well. I was placed on one side, in primary position, which is having one hand on the dorsal fin, the other on the pectoral fin, and supporting the body with my inner thigh. I was amazed by the fact that all I could feel was solid muscle. If she wanted to, this whale could seriously hurt me. Two other people were with me, and our job was to basically keep her wet, from drying out, and her blowhole above the water, so she could breathe. A little later, the girl I had met earlier was teamed with me. Her name was Lena, and she was from Hawaii. It was coincidence she was there, as she had been visiting the Bahamas to check out wild dolphins there, as she owns a sort of 'swim with dolphins' business on the big island. She was super sweet and we just kind of hung out holding up this massive animal. Our particular whale had respiratory problems, so she wasn't taking full deep breaths, and I didn't help much at first, as I accidentally didn't time my wetting right and got some water in her blowhole. She was okay though. I did get sprayed in the face a couple times, making me smell oily afterward. It wasn't as strong as I thought, but they do smell a bit like an engine because their blubber has to be oiled, expecially around the blowhole. She also fartetd on me. Luckily I didn't get peed or pooped on though. Hey, few people can say they've been farted on by a whale.
The whole experience was awesome. I was suprised how soft she was, and she behaved very well. I got to hold her while Lena checked her pulse, and then we did a breath rate test. Then it was feeding time! We held her while senior staff basically had to insert a tube of fish gruel down her throat. I give them kudos, because I wouldn't want to stick my fist down a whale's throat, especially one with a lot of front teeth. She was also fed some tiny fish, and did very well. I believe she was of teenager age, but wasn't doing as well as a couple of the others. There was another female with really bad sunburn, and a calf as well. The calf will kept in captivity for the rest of her life, as her parents both died, and she will never learn the necessities to survive in the wild. The teenagers won't be able to teach her. For now, they seem to be getting better. We shall see! There were a couple people taking photos of us, and possibly someone from National Geographic, but I know that most of the news crews were there the previous week, so attention has died down somewhat.
I was in the water for about two hours, and did start to get cold, and my hands hurt from being in the same position, but there was no chance in hell I was letting go! Eventually, Lena and I were replaced to give other volunteers a chance, and we sat watching for a bit, and once we weren't needed, climbed out of our wetsuits (the hardest and most akward part of the day), signed out, and said goodbye. I also received a large 'x' on my hand, as I am quarantined for 72 hours to not visit any zoo, animal facility, or park, in case a spread some unknown disease from the pilot whales. The 'x' will cause admissions to turn me out.
Finally, I drove on home, listening to Backstreet Boys with the windows down, and got home early, allowing me to head to the gym for hip-hop class, which started up. Of course, on the program, they left out 'aerobic' hip-hop. Naturally, it was intense. It was a lot of fun though, and I was pretty proud of myself that I could keep up. I was afraid because there was this Asian kid next to me (Asians are awesome hip-hop dancers) and a tall girl on the other side, but the girl was terrible at rhythmn and the guy tired out even earlier than I did! So yeah, I'm awesome. Of course, today I woke up, and my butt is so sore, I can barely sit! Oh well, I guess it's good for me :)
Classes also started this week. I had marine chemistry (oh the joy) and tonight I have marine mammals, so that should be good! And tomorrow, back to hanging out with the med students!
Below I have some pictures I took at the MMC. We were not allowed to take pics beyond a certain point, so you can't see any of the whales. However, here's an article Megan posted about the rescue effort. You can see some of the whales in this article.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/05/16/away-from-spotlight-whale-rescue-effort-continues/
Driving into Key Largo. The median the whole way is painted blue!
Tried to get the ocean on one side.
Heading into Key Largo.
...Still behind the same truck. It's only one lane for most of the way.
Getting closer. Check out the exit...Yacht Club Dr.
Heading over the ramp into the Key. It's a gorgeous view of the harbor and ocean. I couldn't get the best shot of it though.
One of many boat businesses on the Key.
Driving through Key Largo looks like this. A strip of skinny land with the ocean on either side.
No idea.
The parking lot at the MMC. It was completely packed, that we got a call from the fire marshall to move some vehicles!
This is the view heading toward the road. That big cement tower has nothing to do with us. The little white building below it is where classes are held.
The tent that housed food. Next to it was the rack of wetsuits.
I couldn't take pictures past this point, but the first two tents is where people sat and equipment was held, while the smaller two tents are actually in the water, and that's where the whales are kept.
Tried to get a close-up, but it didn't work. The sign says Marine Mammal Conservancy and its mission.
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