| Articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MARINE MAMMAL STRANDING CENTER
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
PUBLIC SERVICE
ANNOUNCEMENT |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CONTACT:
Marine Mammal Stranding Center |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Since 1975 the At
this time the stranding center has 13 animals in house for treatment,
representing all four species of seals; Hooded, Harp, Grey and Harbor.
The Center is literally bulging with seals and we are hoping that
the seal season will be coming to a quick end. Four
of the Harbor seals we have in house are a result of shark bites, and
because of the extent of their injuries their stay at the center is
longer than most of the other Animals.
With the advent of
Global Warming coming to a reality the numbers will only escalate
over the next several years. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From 1975 to present, the percentages of strandings handled by MMSC are:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
PSEG honors employee's commitment to nonprofit  HOWELL - Tina
Malinak, a Howell resident, was recently recognized for her volunteer
efforts on behalf of the According to a press release, Malinak was one of 17
individuals who received PSEG's Recognizing Excellence in Volunteerism
award, which is given to employees to reward outstanding volunteer
service to qualified nonprofit organizations.
"Though our people expend a great deal of energy at
work, they still manage to find the time to give back to their
communities and make New Jersey a better place to live and work," said
John Smith, director of corporate responsibility for PSEG. "We honor
their commitment and support their efforts."
Malinak has been involved with
the "I'm so
grateful to PSEG," Malinak said. "The timing of the award was perfect
because this is the time of year we see a lot of seals coming into area
waters, and as a result the number of seals coming into the center
increases. It can cost as much as a few thousand dollars to care for
just one seal."
The According to Malinak, most
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
My
fascination with dolphins, especially the bottlenose dolphin, started
while I was stationed in North Carolina where my unit practiced rubber
boat landings along the coast. The exercise consisted of paddling out
approximately one mile in an inflatable boat with a seven-man team,
capsizing the boat, and swimming away from it. At that point, we were to
swim back, right the boat, and begin the exercise over. One day while the boat was capsized, we started swimming for it, but we were unable to catch up to it. The harder we swam, the farther away the boat moved. The secret to the power of the boat was revealed to us when several bottlenose dolphins popped up from underneath. Apparently, they decided to participate in our exercise in a negative way by pushing the boat away from us, causing us to swim even faster and harder to catch up to the vessel. This was my first experience with a “human dolphin swim encounter”. After my military tour, I acquired a job at one of the first aquariums in the country, called Aquarama, in Philadelphia. One of my tasks was to maintain filtration and see that the show pool was clean of debris, and the underwater viewing windows clear. This job was performed at night when the aquarium was empty. The first two or three times down with scuba gear, cleaning was quite boring – until the unexpected visitors arrived in the main show pool. After becoming mesmerized by pushing the underwater vacuum around the bottom of the pool, I felt the presence of eyes watching me. I looked around. To my surprise, behind me in the pool were three bottlenose dolphins (the residents of this enclosure during show hours). It surprised me because these animals were normally kept in holding pens separated from the show pool by underwater gates The animals immediately started to assist in my cleaning tasks. One started pushing the vacuum across the bottom. At one point, the large bull that was in charge of the pool slowly rose to the surface where a sleeping pelican was floating, and to the surprise of the pelican (that left the pool in quite a hurry) the dolphin removed one of the tail feathers and brought it to me. This became a nightly occurrence, much to my delight When the trainers were told about this episode, they refused to believe it, because every morning when they came to work the animals were in their respective holding facilities. The mystery was solved by watching the dolphins throughout their play session at night. I observed them heading back into their holding facility. The last animal in the enclosure would simply catch the open gate with its tail fluke, pulling it closed and throwing the latch over the securing bar. This exercise was not conducted by just one animal; each and every dolphin knew the closing procedure. As my duties grew over the years to performing and training these dolphins, I became even more aware of the high level of intelligence these beings possess. Since then, my role with marine mammals has been a bit different. Rather than working with performing captive animals, my wife Sheila and I decided to assist those individuals that wash ashore unexpectedly along our coast line. The rehabilitation of these protected species is not only for the well being of the individual animal, although that is foremost in our attempts, but to gain more of an insight to their behavior and to collect valuable scientific data on their future. I have worked on many various types of marine mammals and sea turtles through the years and there is nothing more rewarding than the pleasure of releasing these animals after recovery. However, a low point in our stranding career took place in 1987 when bottlenose dolphins started washing ashore en masse along the NJ coast in abnormally large numbers, ultimately to reach 90 animals in this state alone. Then, the epidemic started spreading south to the Florida coast with over 740 confirmed deaths, and many more animals that died at sea that were never accounted for. During that summer, I was able to rescue only one live dolphin and place it in our holding pool. That animal died three minutes after being placed in the facility. This die-off made me recall years ago the helplessness I felt when I worked with captive dolphins and how I could go home at night to a change of scenery, knowing that the dolphins had no choice but to look at four concrete walls around them. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 As
a member of the MMSC, you are part of the important work to help promote
compassion and conservation by helping the many marine mammals and sea
turtles that come into our care. We are experiencing a growing number of
sea animals that need our expert care, and with these additional
expenses. please consider a gift to the MMSC; we appreciate your
support, which is very important to our cause. Anything you can give
will be a great help! Many thanks to all of you...and the animals thank
you too!! ADOPT A SEAL ♥ RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP ♥ SUPPORT OUR MUSENM BY PURCHASING A GIFT ♥ CONSIDER A BEQUEST |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Now They Both Have Homes
As of
9/28/07 it is official, both non-releasable seals have found a home!!
MMSC-07-024, our blind adult male harbor seal, is officially
going to Los Angeles Zoo. The seal came in on 3/3/07 in Cape May Point
and quickly became a media darling when his chances of ever finding
placement looked grim. After lots of searching, however, the L.A zoo
showed promising interest, and they have now confirmed that they have a
home for him!
When the seal stranded, the staff
was amazed that, besides the obvious blindness which caused him to not
be able to find and catch food, there was no other medical problems.
He quickly captured our hearts, but we knew that finding a home
for a wild adult seal was hard enough even without the blindness.
Nevertheless, he continued to prove that he wanted a chance with
his eagerness to learn his way around our facility’s pool and
ever-growing courage to trust us. He currently is beginning the first
steps of training by targeting on our hand and other objects. He is
going to make a great addition to the zoo.
Like
the blind harbor seal, a juvenile grey seal also tugged on our heart
strings when she came in on 4/16/07.
Beach goers had called to report that she had hit a jetty in
We at
the The MMSC would like to thank Jennifer Skidmore of The Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service for her hard work in helping to place these animals. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Press of Atlantic City | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
