NECWA News Blog

 Join NECWA for a fun, free family program focused on Salt, the most famous humpback whale in the world. Kids and adults can view our life-sized model from the outside as well as the inside.  NECWA will also offer hands-on activities, including a variety of arts & crafts.  A big thank you to the Wellfleet Cultural Council for sponsoring this event. 

Thank You to All of the Local Businesses That Donated to Our Raffle! Click on the logos below to go directly to their website.  Stop by and support these businesses through your purchase today.                                                                                              We Appreciate Your Generosity and Support! 

 Join us at the Middleboro Public Library for a fun, family program on Sharks in New England. Free and open to the public. 

 NECWA will be at the Plymouth Farmer's Market on these dates! Stop by the NECWA information table at the Plymouth Farmer's Market on July 25th, August 8th, and August 22nd. We will have information about marine wildlife, marine artifacts for viewing, and an arts & craft activity for the kids. 

Wareham Classrooms have 2 Headstart Diamondback Terrapins Terrapin Crush prior to this turtle's release.  NECWA was able to work with 2 Wareham Teachers this fall and winter as they participated in our Diamondback Terrapin Headstart program. One teacher, Lara Schofield, works at the high school and has previously participated in NECWA's head start program. The other teacher, Tanya Bungert, a middle school teacher, was new to the program this season.  Over the course of the school year, NECWA staff joined teachers and their students on numerous occasions, providing on-site guidance for caring and documenting the hatchlings. On two occasions , NECWA came into the High School to work with and present lessons on terrapins to the afterschool program run by teacher Lara Schofield. Working directly with students and their teachers is so important for these types of community  projects for it allows NECWA to see how successful our head start programs are.   NECWA would like ...

New Headstarting Program in New Bedford Public Schools NECWA expanded our Diamondback Terrapin Headstart program to include an elementary classroom in New Bedford Public Schools. Teacher Kim LeBlanc who teaches Grade 4 took on this project with her students and they did an excellent job of raising and caring for their terrapin hatchling.  NECWA would like to thank the New Bedford Cultural Council and the Mass Cultural Council for supporting this project. Without their support, NECWA could not expand this program to different school districts and schools.  Here is some information from Teacher Kim LeBlanc at Ashley School, New Bedford,  and some stories from her students.  In my fourth grade classroom we were privileged to have a hatchling.  The kids were so excited to watch our “baby” go from 0.5 grams to 207 grams.  I loved to see their faces as the turtle was seen after vacations.  They were amazed at how big it got over the times we w...

POKEMON GO GLOBAL FEST AT THE NEW BEDFORD FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY Written by Emily Gerrior This past Saturday (July 13 th, 2024), the New Bedford Free Public Library hosted a Pokémon GO Global Event, in which participants explored downtown New Bedford in search of buttons and Pokémon! NECWA was given a table on the second floor of the library, which was themed around environmental conservation and protection. Unfortunately, fellow NECWA volunteer Ethan and I were met with a downpour as soon as we arrived, thus we rushed to move our materials from the car to the library. As we began to set up our station, a librarian gave us a bin of buttons featuring a Pokémon (a shiny Trubbish to be exact) and a recycling emblem to pass out to attendees as a reward for visiting our table.  We decided to put some of our terrapin shells and a horseshoe crab exoskeleton on display. As a life-long Pokémon fan, I added my own contribution: a Squirtle plush which I put just behind the real turtle shell...

In the fall of 2023, the Head Aquarist at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Tyan Bassett, contacted Krill to discuss the possibility of becoming involved in NECWA's Diamondback Terrapin Head Start Program. Although the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History has long cared for an adult terrapin, Tyan was interested in raising a hatchling for eventual release in the spring of 2024. With the support of the Brewster Cultural Council and the Mass Cultural Council, NECWA was able to make this happen.  Tyan and Krill are good friends as they met in the field many years ago as Tyan has helped Krill with numerous ocean sunfish rescues and necropsies. So now it was Krill's turn to help Tyan with this request. Here is a photo taken in 2018 of Tyan and her son helping Krill weigh a dead ocean sunfish that stranded dead on South Sunken Meadows Beach in early winter.  Tyan and staff raised this baby terrapin successfully until its release in June. What was really exciting was that this pr...

Two Terrapin hatchlings were raised by STEAM teacher Antonia Perry with her students at the Bournedale Elementary School. Antonia sent NECWA the update below recapping this season's head start success. Each of Teacher Perry's classrooms got to name the turtles so they had multiple names by the end of their head start season. This head start program was supported by the Bourne Cultural Council and we thank them for their interest on behalf of the students at Bournedale Elementary. What an amazing experience for them! Turtle A and Turtle B enjoyed each other's company as Teacher Antonia kept them together in a 20 long aquarium tank with about 6 inches of water. They had their own waterfalls, air bubbler, climbing and basking structures, and so much more. What a fabulous set-up for these two babies. "Bournedale Elementary School's PK-2nd graders, under the guidance of their STEAM teacher, Antonia Perry, have completed their fourth year participating in the New England...

Last fall, Ben Squire and his students at Center School in Mattapoisett head started one of NECWA's terrapin hatchlings. This school-wide project was supported by the Mattapoisett Cultural Council. Ben and his students cared for the hatchling through the winter and into the early spring, when it was released back into its home marsh in early June. The students named this baby "Swiftie" for its quick swimming movements in its home tank.  Ben was able to work with all of the grades at Center School from Kindergarten through 4th Grade. Every day, Ben and his students cared for the terrapin hatchling, feeding the wee-one and cleaning its tank. Every week, they would collect some data on their turtle-friend by taking a few shell measurements and a weight. This basic data was used by the students to plot and tack the animal's growth over time and as material in many of their projects.  Here are some notes from Ben.  "The highlight of head starting a terrapin with the y...