One of my favorite things about working at Mystic Aquarium is the passionate peopl that I get to work with.

Okay I'm going to get in and listen t You know, specifically our team, we have the biggest grou of the most dedicated volunteers And also just my colleagues here Everyone I think here probably spends mor with the animals here on campus do with their families sometimes And just the level of care that you know, taking care of these a and making sure that they thriv the best lives here is pretty ad And the lengths that we go to m that these animals have great li Just be very careful.

Yep, looks pink.

Very nice.

A little bit of nasal but I think thats just from us.

Alright.

I've been with mystic for ten ye I just celebrated my ten year anniversary here.

It's been pretty amazing to see how much our progra has evolved over those ten years I was her when we primarily did seal rehab and ever since 2019 we brought on sea turtle rehabil We have a lot more research pro that our team is working on, esp studying the gray seal populati on Black Island, trying to learn more about how environmental imp are potentially changing the distribution of these anima and how we can help protect, the habitat for them, and educate t on how they can help participate So this is where all of our seal come in for rehab, and we get a variety of seal sp into the clinic throughout the y We see harbor seals in our cover Harp seals.

Gray seals are probably on of the most common species that And we actually have a gray sea and harp seal in our clinic righ So this is a little gray seal w that we rescued from Block Islan Rhode Island.

Our program responds to marine m and sea turtles along the coastline of Connecti Rhode Island, Fishers Island, Ne And then that includes Block Island as well.

So he came in with severe pneumo And one thing that can be challe when working with the wild population is that the realize we're trying to help the We need to figure out a way to limit our handling and stress with these animals while we administer that treatme So our team got really creative and came up with a lid to go on their pool.

And then we essentially hook u the nebulization apparatus to th in a little hole, and it create a big cloud of smoke in there, which is essentially that medica that they're breathing in.

So directly going to the lungs and that infection source.

And that helps expedite their re so much quicker.

Of course everything's melting, it's like a little wet.

All right.

And that's it.

The goal for every animal that c here is to get the released as quick as possible.

So this has been a game changer.

And ever since we started nebuli animals, the survival rate for seals that come in wit pneumonia has increased substant So we're really excite and proud of that, treatment tha We have to hide the meds just l we would for like a dog or a pet It's like a little pocket.

He's a little alusive.

So harp seals are an Arctic spe and they come down to our area in between the months of about January till April.

So when they come down here they're used to eating snow and This winter has been great for t previous winters haven't been so for them over here.

So.

And when it's almost like a str response, they start to eat the they're on.

And here a lot of times it's rocks and shells.

So harp seals come in with a bel full of rocks a lot of times.

Let's see if you can see him.

So when an animal comes in for rehabilitation we essentially conduct an exam o So we're going to draw blood with our veterinarians.

And a lot of time we will also want to make sure that we take radiographs so we can look for pneumonia.

Look for those harp seal see if they have rocks in their So we want to kind of do that, that body exam.

And then also look internally to see if there's any other, diagnosis that we can And cater our treatmen plan to that specific animal.

Oh You know, we'll tes for a different viral infection learn more about the populatio and what might be impacting thes You know, we're not only finding information about gray seals or specific population but the information that we get animals tells us about the overa which affects humans as well.

So, a lot of what we're learning from animals, you know, whether they have plastic in th when they come in tells us a lot you know, the ocean healt and all the damage that humans a But then we can use that informa to be a voice to these animals and help, protect the ocean even mor and inspire people to take actio Brain.

About it.

Thank you so much.

All right.

For head, I'm going to look at eyeball and look at gum color.

Have you.

done any of that before?

Not - Okay, Sarah do you min just helping us just because - To hold?

Yeah.

if you want to let go for a sec I can use my hands for a second.

Watch your fingers.

Keep your ha Alright and youre going to move Great.

Awesome.

You feel good?

Yeah.

Alright so, Ill keep my hand he Great.

All right.

You good if I Yup.

Alright.

Oh, awesome.

Thanks.

All right, feel good right there Im going to grab the rubber glo You go first take your hands off I know.

Its tough but think we're going to get the bes two boards on the side kind of.

And letting him just like... lay You want to try that?

Sure.

Ts on her way down too.

Oh!

T's Yeah.

Oh, perfect.

Nevermind.

Uhh we can try that f Okay.

For X-Rays, I'm just going to n who doesn't have a badge to go out of the clinic.

One of my favorite things about and the program is that really a lot of the succ of our response efforts in getting these animals that second chance at life has t the community partnerships that and also just the community supp Whether you're on a respons and someone ends up, you know, h you get a kennel off the beach o it is, you know, people are always so s And that's one of my favorite th this job, is getting to meet people in the communit and helping to educate and creat that awareness about the import of protecting the ocean environm