NECWA News Blog

Well, it has been a busy few weeks for the Anderson's as they continue to find seal carcasses on their beach. This time, the carcass was a juvenile male harp seal that was close to 4 1/2 feet long. NECWA's resident seal scientist, Belinda, was not able to join the response team, but did confirm the species ID and sex of this animal. This was a male seal. With the help of the Anderson's, Nick and Krill headed down the beach to locate and examine this animal. Level A measurements were collected with include measurements and photographs of body parts. Nick took the lead on this examination with the help of the Anderson's. This carcass appeared to be a few weeks old, but was fully intact. The only scavenger damage noticable was on the left side of the head. As Nick measured the length of the carcass and its girth, Krill took photos of these parts and the process in general. In this digital age, photographs are a key component to this type of work. The information they prov...

T he New England Aquarium's Marine Rescue Program called NECWA to see if Krill could check out a report of a dead baby seal on a Manomet beach. The Anderson's called in this sighting which is their second sighting of a dead seal on their beach in less than a month. But this is the time of year that young seal carcasses wash ashore for these young animals have a difficult first year and many don't survive. The seal carcass was just below the high tide mark so Krill removed the carcass from the beach for fear that it would be washed away at the next high tide or taken away by scavengers like coyotes. NECWA has a marine mammal permit from the federal government that allows NECWA staff to remove marine mammal parts for research and educational opportunities. This appeared to be a harbor seal pup who was possibly attacked by coyotes or dogs (see puncture wounds on animal's head). Coyotes are one of the main predators for seals when they are on beaches, especially seal pups o...

On March 12th, Krill Carson was invited to visit Tammy Kelley's first grade classroom at the Center School in Mattapoisett, MA. Kelley and her students were finishing up a month-long unit on whales and were very interested in learning more about these amazing marine mammals that come to feed off our shores each spring, summer and fall. As the students shared their research with Krill and asked a number of questions, it was clear that this was an exceptional group of students who were really interested and fascinated with whales. Much credit goes to their teacher Tammy for she is one of those amazing teachers who really gets her students involved in meaningful and exciting learning projects. After a quick arts & craft activity, Tammy's students got a chance to look at a number of neat whale artifacts including baleen, whale bones, dolphin teeth and food items. Students enjoyed being able to hold and examine items and objects that they had read about, but never expected to a...

NECWA intern Nick Schromburg and staff member Krill Carson, were called by the New England Aquarium Marine Rescue Team to check out a possible seal carcass that had been reported by a family in Manomet. It was a beautiful Sunday morning as Nick and Krill headed down to the beach in search of this animal. The tide was low and many harbor seals were hauled out on the rocks just off the shoreline. These seals looked big and fat a sign that they are feeding well in our waters offshore. It wasn't long before Nick and Krill found a small seal carcass located just above the high tide line. By the size of the carcass and the color of the fur, it was clear that this was a very young seal that had been born this spring. Because the head was missing (probably due to scavengers like coyotes) a positive ID was not possible. But given the time of year and the features of the carcass (such as the white coat of long fur) our best guess is that this was probably a gray seal pup that had recently ...

O n Saturday, February 27th, NECWA accepted an invitation to participate in the Nayatt Science Fair in Barrington, RI. Krill Carson, Ann Cook, Val Galinas, and Val’s husband Mark and daughter Becky all manned the NECWA presentation table. NECWA offered the children some fun things to do including demonstrations, and lessons based on the bones and teeth that were on display. Ann manned this activity and had little trouble keeping the imagination of the kids as she talked about the baleen, prey items and bones on display. Also a great hit were Val’s fabulous origami whale animals. Becky helped out with this activity and it was great fun to see how creative kids can be when decorating their origami whales. To sneak some science into this activity, we talked about the pectoral fin and flukes as well as the blowhole and the spout (when we helped the kids add their fluff to the top of the head to simulate a whale spout). Another fun activity was the blubber glove demonstration where kids pu...

This Sunday, NECWA staff Krill Carson and intern Leah Horeanopolous participated in a necropsy or autopsy of a common dolphin at the WHOI laboaratory. Dr. Greg Early oversaw the necropsy of this young male that stranded in Wellfleet Harbor the day before. The IFAW Marine Mammal Rescue team has been responding to a number of common dolphin strandings in the Wellfleet area over the past few days. They have successfully rescued quite a few individuals, but a number of dolphins came ashore dead or had to be euthanized for humane reasons. Leah was able to participate in this necropsy and took the role of lead photographer. Leah's job was to photograph important external and internal features of this individual. These photographs would coordinate with the tissue samples and the written information that was also collected . Leah also had the opportunity to take up the scalpel and help cut during the necropsy. Leah cut open the stomachs (4-chambered in dolphins) and the intestines looki...