My recent work with the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network

Hello All,

Here's an update on what I've been doing at TMMSN lately.

Swimming at the Rec-
A few weeks ago all us volunteers had to retake our physical fitness training and make sure we could work safely in our new brand new, beautiful facility. All though necessary, training isn't always the most fun process to go through. After getting an email with a list of tests I'd have to complete I wasn't feelin' so great about this training. So to prepare myself I bought (or rather, mom bought) myself a membership to our Recreation Center. The email said I'd have to swim two laps - no stopping or touching... and to make it all the more difficult I'd have to wear a wetsuit and scuba boots. My first swim across the Rec pool wasn't too bad. I thought perhaps it wouldn't be as hard as I had though. However as I was making the swim back I was sure I was going to drown. I spent about 45 minutes swimming back and forth and felt like I would die by the time I was done. I went home feeling somewhat confident. I still had two more days before training day. The next day I went to Houston and bought (or rather, mom bought) myself my first pair of scuba boots. Seeing I hadn't ever worn a pair before I wasn't exactly sure how they were supposed to fit. After trying on and 8, my usual shoe size, I discovered scuba boots ran large. I decided to take the 7s. The next day I hit the pool again. This time with my boots on. They were amazing. They were water proof (duh!). I could have swam with sock on under my boots and they'd have stayed dry! I walked around in the water for a few minutes to get a feel for the extra weight. Then took a lap across the pool - arm over arm and feet a'kickin'. Kicking very... slowly. And sluggishly. I guess I hadn't realized just how big those boots ran. Once my feet started pumping my boots filled with water and started slipping off my feet. Hahaha, that's just what I needed. Water-filled boots on top of my already horrible swimming abilities and nervousness. After a couple of attemptive laps I headed home. My only hope of passing the test was determination.

Test Day-
So the morning of the test I was pretty nervous - too nervous to have any breakfast aside from a bottle of Tropicana orange juice. I got to the facility just at starting time. Heidi (the lady in charge) led me to a rack of wetsuits and helped me find one that would fit. If I had to wear a wetsuit the one I got was the best one to wear. It was mostly black but had some purple on the sleeves. I liked it. I went to the bathroom to put it on. Surprisingly it was really comfortable and a lot easier to move in than I had expected. But it was still awkward. Opening that bathroom door and waltzing out in that thing was the most challenging parts of the day. I grabbed my purse and bag and coat and held them tightly against myself and made my grand entrance into the main room of the facility. Looking around and noticing everyone else made me feel a little better. I mean, everyone else was wearing one and didn't seem to care. So I set my bags and coat on the stairs and joined in the conversation some of the other ladies were having. Brenda was the first to introduce herself to me. She was a sweet lady. She introduced me to everyone else in the group. Not everyone was there yet so we passed the time with chit chat and group photos. I dearly hope those don't get put on the website.
Once everyone arrived we began our first test which was to lift and walk a stretcher with a "dolphin" in it. Ever seen those big inflatable dolphins floats? They filled one of those with water and put it in the stretcher. It weighed 350lbs! Three people lined each side of the stretcher. This was honestly one of the hardest parts of the test. It was so heavy! We had to walk the stretcher about 20 feet and then set it down again. After that we did all the in-water training. We all walked around the corner to view the pool. Have you ever had the feeling of a flood of relief? The pool wasn't even half the size of the pool at the Rec. The swim test was a piece of cake. I went through all that worrying and fretting and it turned out to be the easiest part of the test! And the water felt good too! It was freezing. See, wetsuits are supposed to keep you dry but I didn't realize the one I was wearing had a small hole in it...
We also had to do a series of escape tests which included climbing out of the pool on a rope ladder (we had 10 seconds to complete it), standing in the middle of the pool and running backward to the end of the pool and jumping out backwards (we had 8 seconds to complete that), and again, standing in the middle of the pool only running forwards to the other end of the pool and jumping up, grabbing a handle, and pulling yourself up out of the pool (we had 15 seconds to complete that). Then we had the weight lifting tests which were also conducted in the water. We had to carry a barrel that weighed more than 100lbs but was semi-buoyant around in our left arm for 15 minutes. We had to walk it in circles around the pool to simulate the feeling of supporting a dolphin in the water. I felt like my arm was going to fall off! And the last test we had to do was similar. We had to squat in the water and hold a barrel (I don't know how much this one weighed but it was fairly heavy) under our right arm for 10 minutes only we had to squat in such a position that our arms around the barrel were way off to the side of us and we weren't allowed to position our legs under the barrel. But after those ten minutes we were home free and allowed to leave. Training complete.

Thursday, February 24th -
Perhaps you all heard or read about the recent whale stranding on Galveston beach. If not here's a link: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7980077 An 11 year old girl and her father came across a stranded pygmy sperm whale on the beach while they were looking for seashells on Feb 23rd. TMMSN was called to rescue the whale. TMMSN has rescued pygmy sperms in the past but has never had a successful rehabilitation. Pygmy Sperms are deep divers and can dive up to 300 meters (1,000 ft!). Obviously the pool at our facility isn't 1,000ft deep. Its more like 7 feet. Pygmies are also deep-water whales and the stress of being in a small pool is enough to cause heart failure. The TMMSN Critical Care Team(CCT) was able to load the whale into the rescue truck and transport it to the facility. She was able to swim on her own. The TMMSN CCT kept a careful watch on whale until the vetrinarian was able to take a look at her. The picture to the left is Emily Ford (one of my new favorite people =) taking observation notes on the whale. After a check-up from the vet it was decided that the best course of action would be to euthanize the whale and end all its suffering. Ok. Here's my part. The next day a necropsy (an animal autopsy) was preformed by Doctor Cowan and several TMMSN volunteers (me). It was my first time to participate in a necropsy. And what a better way to start than with an endangered species of whale. It was an amazing feeling. So few people have ever had the chance to be so close to this species. By nature they are very shy and stay away from people, boats, and even other whales. Very little is know about them and what is known about them has only been gathered from necropsies.
The necropsy was short notice. I got an email Wednesday night saying if you wanna help show up at 10:00AM the next morning. Luckily I got all my BLAST class planning done early so Mom was able to take me. When I got there they had the truck (containing the whale) backed up to the lab entrance. We volunteers made our way into the lab and geared up in latex gloves and plastic aprons. It took a while to get the whale from the truck to the dissection table. After all, the was around 13 feet lond and weighed 1,200lbs! Once the table was situated we all gathered around and waited for instructions from Dr. Cowan. The whale was absolutely beautiful. It was my first time to actually see a whale. Sure, she wasn't alive but she was still beautiful.
Dr. Cowan made his way to the table and luckily I got to stand next to him. First thing first we had to take measurements. We measured from rostrum to flukes, from rostrum to blow hole, from ear bone to middle of melon, and so and and so forth. Then Dr. Cowan pulled out this huge knife and cut away (in a very organized manner of course). After he made several incisions down the whales body we had to take blubber thickness measurements. I won't go into too much detail but the whale was skinned, and "de-blubbered". A bone organization in Oklahoma that partners with TMMSN wanted the skeleton of the whale so we had to be careful to remove all the bones starting with the ribs. I didn't get to stay for the whole necropsy but I did get to see plenty. Dr. Cowan taught us the anatomy of the whale and pointed out her heart, lung, liver, stomach, kidney, and intestines. By that time I had been there three hours and had to go. I was covered in black sticky blood. The whole room was. The floor was so sticky with blood I couldn't hardly pick up my feet. I washed up a bit and headed out.
Ha. Believe it or not after that I was starving so Mom took me to Benno's to get a bowl of gumbo and some hush puppies. It was quite a day. I later learned that the necropsy continued for 6 hours after I left making it a 9 hour necropsy! As it turns out the whale was suffering from a septic bacterial infection in her trachea. When an infection is septic there isn't any hope of recovery. So as the vet had advised it was best to put her down.

Houston Zoo Teen/Adult Career Conference-
Yesterday the Houston Zoo hosted a teen/adult careers conference to teach people how to get careers working with animals and animal sciences. They had a series of lectures to attend and also had several boothes set up by other animal organizations for people to visit. TMMSN was on of the organizations to have a booth this year and I was one of the five volunteers to work the booth. It was my first time to work an education booth and I learned SO much. Emily Ford (pictured above) is in charge of all the education events TMMSN takes part in. So she taught me how to run the booth and gave me a run through of all the specimens we had on the table; which included ribs from a dolphin, manatee, and whale, a dolphin skull, a jar of dolphin teeth, a dolphin scapula, a whale scapula, 1/3 of the lower jaw of a sperm whale, a plasticized dolphin flipper, and baleen from a gray whale. We also had flyers, pamphlets, dolphin 911 cards, and free pens to pass out to stopper-byers. In all about 200 teens and adults came to the event and of all the boothes set up ours was the most popular. We even had the zoo staff stopping by wanting to learn about what we had on the table. It was really fun to watch the kids light up when they saw the jaw of a sperm whale or when they made the connection between the gray whale baleen on the table and the scene from Finding Nemo when they are in the whales mouth and Marlin is beating up against the whale's baleen! It was a really great experience and I think I learned more that day than any of those teens and adults.

I'm signed up to work three more education events this March (March is dolphin awareness month, by the way.) so I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences.

Until next time,
Juliana.