Last Tuesday, a representative of the Mote Marine’s stranding investigations programme gave an insight into their work throughout the last decade in front of a packed Community Centre in Mote, Florida.
The program responses to rescue calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week within and outside their range of Sarasota and Manatee counties. Within the time period between 2012 and 2017, they have received 3162 calls, which averages to more than 600 calls per day. Their manager, Gretchen Lovewell says, they would not have been able to “respond to this many calls without the help of law enforcement and volunteers”, as well as local aquariums and organisations.
Animals in need range from sea turtles to big cetaceans, covering a whopping 40 different species. The majority of the calls concerned sea turtles, which is not surprising with their sensitivity to the red tide bloom. Its toxins damage the turtles’ neurons and affect their ability to surface and swim well. 2018 was the worst year, with more than 1500 calls that year and 312 sea turtles lost – 200 more than average. However, rescuing a turtle from such a situation is fairly simple. They recover very well when removed from the toxic water. After some good food and water, they can be placed back in their natural habitat within a short time. The scientists work closely with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to determine the safest place to release the animals back in the wild “and fortunately, they seem to stay away from the bloom area”. Furthermore, last year’s nesting season was outstanding.
The organisation also responded to a higher than usual number of cetacean strandings during 2018. The numbers for 2019 are still to come.
A report on the presentation can be found here: https://bocabeacon.com/wordpress/news/mote-scientist-discusses-stranding-investigations-program-with-community-center-crowd/
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