NECWA News Blog

  Join Krill Carson and Deb Ewing for a fun, free presentation on the different types of turtles in our Marion neighborhood. This presentation is free and open to the public.  NECWA will start with a PowerPoint presentation and then close with viewing of turtle shells and artifacts. Free educational material is available for all ages.  Friday , July 17, 2026 Marion Council on Aging 465 Mill Street, Marion, MA  1:00 pm start time

 Join Krill and NECWA interns for a fun, family program highlighting our life-sized inflatable of Salt, the most famous humpback whale in the world. This program is on Tuesday, July 14th from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm. All are welcome! 

We hope you can join Will Saxton, one of our NECWA high school interns, for this fun and educational program. Will has volunteered with NECWA for several years. First as an intern and afterwards, returning as a volunteer. These programs are a great way for these young professionals to practice their presentation skills and to engagt with community members.  This is a free program for all family members. The Library is asking folks to register on their website by clicking HERE.

  We wish all of our supporters a very happy and healthy holiday season. Be safe and keep cool from this extremely hot weekend. 

This coming week, NECWA will be shipping out the last box of ocean sunfish vertebra to a fisheries scientists in Taiwan. Dr. Ching-Tsun Chang is going to use the vertebra for an aging study. This tissue was collected over the past 20 years that NECWA has been rescuing and researching ocean sunfish in New England waters. Ocean sunfish feed off Cape Cod and surrounding waters each spring and summer. In the fall, this species migrates south to warmer wintering areas. Last season, NECWA rescued and documented over 90 ocean sunfish strandings in the New England area. We rescue the live animals and necropsy the carcasses.  All tissues and data collected from carcasses is shared with other researchers in the US and around the world to support their research and to support our understanding of this very unusual species. NECWA is an all-volunteer nonprofit and the only organization that rescues this unusual marine misfit. Help us do this very important work. To support this and other marine...

Happy Happy!  Horseshoe Crabs are vital to our health and overall well-being given the use of their blood products in our medical industry. We encourage everyone to learn more about horseshoe crabs and to become involved in their protection and conservation.

Local wildlife artist, marine biologist, and educator, Nick Mayer, and his wife Amy recently visited the Mattapoisett Central School to conduct a series of painting workshops with teachers and students. Teacher Ben Squire has been part of NECWA's Southcoast Terrapin Project's Headstart Program for many years and has involved the school in this very important activity. After the workshops, Nick and Amy joined NECWA staff and interns, as well as Ben Squired and family. as NECWA worked-up the 2 diamondback terrapins that were part of Ben's Headstart program for the school's he oversees. This gave NECWA interns a great opportunity to train with a live terrapin as they start their summer internship program with our Southcoast Terrapin Project. Then the group headed to Marion to release these cuties in the marsh close to where they emerged from their nest. Saying goodbye to our Headstart terrapins is always difficult but so fulfilling when you think about how this program i...

          June marks the beginning of NECWA’s season of assisting diamondback terrapin turtles as they attempt to nest comfortably within sandy areas of Massachusetts. Since diamondback terrapins typically return to the same location each year to next, this task has become increasingly perilous for the turtles as they must traverse new roadways and avoid being struck by vehicles in order to reach their nesting areas.  On June 7 th , NECWA volunteers located one diamondback terrapin nest in a Marion turtle garden and surrounded it with a protective cage to dissuade predators, such as foxes and raccoons, from consuming the eggs within. Furthermore, NECWA volunteers assisted three adult female diamondback terrapins spotted in Wareham.  Unlike the populations of land-dwelling turtles during the spring, which typically include sizable numbers of both male and female turtles, semi-aquatic turtles discovered on land, such as terrapins, are predominantly ...

  We wish you a very happy World Ocean's Day. Keep fighting for our oceans and the amazing life that calls it home.  One way to support World Ocean's Day is to write your congressmen/women and the President to encourage them to stop the Trump Administration's dismantling of the ocean-floor observation network. This network collects critical climate data on coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful global ocean currents. These arrays also help scientists measure and track biogeochemical cycles, marine food webs, and coastal dynamics, and fisheries. This network has provided continuous, real-time climate data to researchers around the world for over 25 years. To learn more, check out these websites: CNN The Guardian

Yesterday (May 18, 20926) NECWA intern Natalie Hartley joined NECWA volunteer staff members Seth Cohen and Kathy Miller for a horseshoe crab survey sponsored by Mass Audubon at Wellfleet Bay. These spawning surveys help scientists at the Div. of Marine Fisheries estimate population size and status for this very important, key stone species. NECWA provides these type of activities to all interns to support their professional growth and development. This type of field and lab work allows high school and college interns interested in marine biology and marine science to grow in their field of choice and to build their resume.  Hopefully these types of experiences will help our interns move on to the next internship, job, or degree program. NECWA works with over 60 interns each year and we feel that this is a very important mission for our organization. Often there is no other way to get the experience needed than to do. This type of hands-on learning is essential for our intern's grow...

Here are 2 of NECWA's Headstart terrapins filmed this week in the Bourne Elementary School. This beautiful pair is getting a late afternoon bite to eat under the supervision of STEM teacher Ms. Toni Perry. Ms. Perry has been a long-term participant in NECWA's Headstart program and does an incredible job with the kids, the terrapins, and this conservation mission. Click HERE to watch the TikTok video clip. 

Hot off the press! "This week we're heading to New England to get to know its very large, blobby, thick-tailed electric ray that's super cool but not well-understood. In this episode, we get a peek into the torpedo ray's personality and deep dive into the how-tos and value of rescuing and necropsying stranded fish. Guy ponders if anyone has used uterine "milk" to make a cheese and Katrina wonders about historical accounts of these fish being used to cure migraines and gout. Our guest is Carol "Krill" Carson from the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance." To listen to the podcast with NECWA President and Founder, Krill Carson, click HERE .

Happy Mother's Day to all the ladies out there! Thank you for your nurturing spirit of "mothering" that extends to family, friends, colleagues and strangers alike. This sentiment honors all women for their care, strength, courage, and positive impact on the health and wellbeing of others and the planet.

Comment period open for possible deregulation of federal rule regarding speed restrictions to protect North Atlantic Right Whales . The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  is accepting public comments until June 2, 2026 as they consider deregulating the North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Speed Rule established in 2008. This rule set in place  seasonal and mandatory vessel speed restrictions in designated areas along the East Coast of the US in an attempt to reduce the risk of vessel collisions with this critically endangered species.  This population was decimated by commercial whaling in the early 1900.s for this species is slow-moving, often travels and feeds close to shore, and has so much blubber under it's skin that it floats when killed. These features and characteristics is how they got their common name "Right Whale" for they were the right whale to kill. Currently, the biggest threats to their continued survival include vessel strikes, entangle...

13th Annual Herring Festival at Oliver Mills Park, Middleboro, MA. Article by Will Singe r.  This weekend was the 13th Annual Herring Run Festival at Oliver Mills Park in Middleboro, MA. For years, I’ve heard legends about this event for it brings the community together to have fun, eat and drink all the while listening to live music by local musicians. Everyone was here to witness a fascinating natural phenomena that happens every spring, river herring migrating from their ocean home to freshwater ponds and lakes in order to spawn.   River Herring refer to two different species of fish that are very similar in appearance and often difficult to tell apart: alewife and blueback herring. They are anadromous fish for each spring they migrate from their ocean. home to freshwater ponds and lakes to breed. This phenomenon typically begin in March, peaks in April, and ends in June. R iver herring travel miles upstream to reach the place where they were born. On this journe...

Yesterday, March 21, 2026, NECWA was once again part of Cooler Middleborough, a community festival that brings together different organizations all focused on making the world a better place for us and for the organisms that also call it home. NECWA brought our 40' inflatable whale model and set-up 6 tables with lots of educational material available to festival participants.  Kids and adults had a great time viewing our inflatable model of Salt, the Humpback Whale. Not only could you view Salt from the outside, but you can also go inside her and view inflated organs, like the heart, lungs, and digestive tract.  NECWA also set-up our Song Tent where we play and discuss humpback song. Kids and adults can go inside and listen to humpback song as they learn about its purpose and changing musical structure.      NECWA also provided 6 tables filled with various educational activities. Some tables displayed marine artifacts like whale bones, whale baleen, shark j...

On Saturday, March 7th, NECWA staff members Kathy Miller and Deb Munson presented a poster on thresher shark strandings on Cape Cod. This conference was sponsored by Mass Audubon and held at the Cape Cod Community College in Barnstable. This poster was put together by Krill Carson, John Chisholm (State Shark Biologist), Deb Munson, and Kathy Miller. The poster was very well received by conference participants. NECWA responds to strandings of various species of marine wildlife, esp. those that are overlooked by other organizations. We call them the "Marine Misfits." NECWA has been rescuing and documenting strandings for over 20 years which has created a very important long-term database for many marine misfits, including the ocean sunfish, torpedo ray, and various species of sharks. Please donate to NECWA to keep us in the field conducting rescues and research activities. We are a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to rescuing and studying New England's unique coastal marine w...

Due to the recent Blizzard, DMF is extending the public comment period for Horseshoe Crabs harvested in the waters of MA. The second and last remote public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4th, starting at 6 pm. Please register and attend this Zoom meeting if possible. If you can not attend and comment via Zoom, you can email written comments through Friday, March 6th. Email to Director Dan McKiernan at marine.fish@mass.gov. The Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barrens has a great page on this species, the issues, and how to help. Go to https://pinebarrensalliance.org/horseshoe-crab-advocates/ . Also check out the Massachusetts Horseshoe Crab Coalition at https://horseshoecrabs.org We need good management of this species to ensure its continued survival in the coastal waters of New England. Your voice can make a difference. Learn the facts and make a statement on behalf of these amazing creatures.