Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center

Happy Mother’s Day – to all the mom’s out there.   For MARC, Mother’s Day coincides nicely with the time of year that seal pups are born in Maine.  This year, we are off to a nice steady start… and our fingers are crossed that this means that the seal pups are being taken care of by their nurturing moms.   If you’ve been keeping track, so far we have 3 seal pups in the hospital… all who have been rescued because they have been separated from their moms.

THAT’S WHERE WE COME IN!  From May through September each year, MARC transforms into the nursery for dependent pups… offering them a warm, cozy place to sleep, seal friends to play with, medications as needed and plenty of food to help them grow.  Today, our three pups were lucky to have dedicated volunteers at MARC step-in to replace their moms….. making it a truly happy seal pup’s day!

MEET OUR PUPS!

Wiggle:  Wiggle is the first harbor seal pup of 2012.  Arriving on the 1st of May, she was collected and tranported from Isleboro, Maine, by our friends at Allied Whale.  Wiggle has been doing great and growing fast.  For the most part, she is really healthy, but she did give us a little scare initially when we discovered that her umbilicus and urinary tract (which are all connected internally) were pretty infected.   We think a few days of antibiotics have done the trick and taken care of the infection, but we’re continuing to watch closely.   At just 2 weeks of age, Wiggle spends most of her day napping and taking an occasional swim.  She has bonded closely with her roommate – Alfabeto.

Alfabeto:  Alfabeto arrived from South Thomaston, Maine just one week after Wiggle.   She was the first rescue of the newly formed Marine Mammals of Maine (MMoME)- the new non-profit that will be responding to animals in Southern Maine.  One of the benefits of having more than one pup on site is that the pups can bond with each other, rather than  imprinting on their human caregivers.  Though Wiggle at first didn’t like the idea of her new friend, she soon accepted Alfabeto as her companion and the two have been lounging around together for the past week.  Other than coming to us underweight, hungry and motherless, Alfabeto seems to be thriving so far.  Her favorite thing to do is swim on her back as fast as she can.  Check out this video of the two pups together.

And just yesterday… we received our third pup… and the only BOY in our hospital.

Gnocchi:  Gnocchi arrived yesterday via MMoME from Westport Island.  He had been seen for a few days searching the shoreline for his mom, whom he had been separated from.  Once responders were certain she wouldn’t return to her pup, they decided to intervene and bring him to MARC for nutritional support.   So far, Gnocchi is hungry and active.  He is also attempting to claim the title of “Most Wiggly Pup Ever” – and is giving Wiggle a run for her money.

Gnocchi holds still long enough for a quick photo

We hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day as we are here.  Feel free to join in the Mother’s Day fun (if you’re not a mom already) or add another member to your family (if you are a mom)!  All of our seal pups are available for adoption at our website.

Written by super-intern Sam

Sometimes pasta is a bit better when you let it sit for a few days.   Today we released Fettucine, at Granite Point Beach in Biddeford.  If you recall, Fettuccine was scheduled for release this past weekend, but we decided to hold him back at the last minute…. feeling like a few extra days in rehab might make his release success that much better!

Getting ready!

Getting set!

Going!!!!

Fettuccine was found lethargic and dehydrated on Fortune’s Rocks Beach in late February and was brought to us for some TLC.  He’s now healthy and full of energy and was ready to hit the water today as soon as his kennel door opened. We were happy to see him looking so fearless and content in the big blue.

Fettuccine raced to the shoreline

Special thanks to our fantastic visitors that assisted with the release today – UNE’s resident shark expert, Dr. James Sulikowski, and his family and friends!   Thanks for all of your help!

Thanks for joining us!

Thanks to ALL that came out to join us today.  Lovely weather and an even more lovely crowd.  We were honored with the support.  Aside from the fact that 300-400 people joined us on the beach, we are so gracious that we were able to raise over $1200 to benefit future seals at MARC.   Just $1 can buy a pound of fish for the seals!  You can’t begin to imagine how much this sum of money helps us out.  You’re all awesome.

Our volunteer, Marissa, shared some great shots of the release (click to enlarge the pics).

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Onlookers waiting for the seals to arrive

Making their way to the sand

Capelli being released by her adopter, Will

Grey seals aren’t known to be the swiftest of critters on land.   Especially with the pups, it can take a few minutes for them to figure out how to make their way to the water…especially when they have 800 eyes watching them.

Team meeting! Which way should we go?

Though it took Capelli and Rigatoni a few minutes to adjust to the audience and orient themselves towards the ocean, once they realized that there was water in front of them… they headed for the surf.

Capelli heading for the surf

Though not visible in the above photo, Capelli, the youngest grey seal we’ve ever seen at MARC, is wearing a satellite tag glued to her back.  The temporary tag should give us daily information about where she is hanging out for the next few months.  The website should be active soon, so you’ll be able to watch her moves at Whalenet.

Capelli (left, female) and Rigatoni (right, male)

The first splash always feels so good. And Cold!

Sometimes, getting to the destination is about the journey.  Someone on the beach asked why it would take so long for the animals to get to the water, and why Capelli, specifically, was hugging the shoreline even after she made it to the water.  For these young pups, life in the wild was minimal, a mere day or weeks, prior to coming to the MARC hospital.  They may be seals by nature, but a release at this young age means entering into a big unfamiliar world.  We always expect the pups to take a period of time for post-release adjustment to their new home.

Finally at sea.

Again, thanks to all who came out to show your support.  We hope to see you again at the next one!

We did hold one seal back that we felt could have gone out today, but later decided would benefit from another few days at the “seal spa”.  We hope to release him in the next few weeks.

We are very excited to announce that we have had our first acceptance into an ocean-themed film festival.  The Beneath the Waves Film Festival takes place each year as part of the Benthic Ecology Meeting at Old Dominion University in Virginia.  This year, we submitted a short film featuring Stef, the harp seal pup that was born in Maine and rehabilitated at MARC.

Stef can now be seen on the big screen (and youtube

Films will be shown this Friday night at the Festival.  You can read more about it here.

The Beneath the Waves team made this fun underwater video to announce the winners.

And, now, “Stef – Lover of Ice in the Land of Lobster” – the video that was accepted for the “Best Amateur Filmmaker” and “Best Message” Awards.

It’s been a few days since we’ve updated on the 2012 patients.  So far, we have only admitted 3 grey seals to MARC.   Winter seals (greys, harps* and hoodeds*, *which we have yet to see this year) are typically very fast to put through the  rehabilitation process.   These greys/hooded/harp seals tend to be a more durable variety than our young summer harbor seals, which often take months to get through to release.

And so, though it seems like our grey seals have just arrived, they are actually making quick progress towards release and we hope to send them back to sea in the near future.

Rigatoni (L), Capelli (R) - Photo by Samantha Hartery

Rigatoni (Above, Left) – arrived on Valentine’s Day (2/14/12) – cold, tired and fairly skinny.   He underwent a short course of antibiotics when he couldn’t seem to bounce back from his extreme lethargy.  Perhaps he was suffering from loneliness or a broken heart.  Whatever was causing his low-energy, after the medications and some fish in his belly, he started to bounce back.  He now spends his days  swimming and playing with Capelli, and putting on a nice weight from the fish he’s consuming.  Rigatoni will be having a release physical tomorrow and we may release him in the next few weeks.

Capelli (Above, Right) – Arrived in the early part of January (1/10/12).  The earliest and youngest grey seal we’ve seen at MARC.  She arrived in good body condition, but still wearing a full white, lanugo coat.  Capelli received our grey seal milk formula for a few weeks before she transitioned to a diet of fish.  She now has a beautiful light grey coat covered with dark spots.  She is nearly 70 pounds now and has been approved for release by our vet.  She’s hanging out at MARC for an extra week or two to thicken up her blubber layer and to offer some temporary companionship to Rigatoni while he puts on a few pounds.

Fettucine lounging poolside

Fettucine (Above) – Just arrived a short week ago (2/28/12) from Fortune’s Rock Beach… only a few miles from MARC.  Because he is the newest patient, Fettucine is in isolation until we can be sure that he won’t pass any illnesses to our other patients (this is a standard practice at MARC).  Isolation includes a nice salty pool and plenty of fish.  If Fettucine gets a clean bill of health, he’ll be moved into the community pool in no time.  As of now, he has a healthy appetite, but is still working his way towards normal energy and body weight levels.  Other than a small scratch on his rear flipper, he has no obvious wounds or injuries.  His release will be a little further in the distance, but he’s making small steps already.

Keep an eye out for more updates and release notifications… we’ll keep you in the loop!