Instead of driving home after the day at the GOT, I drove to Dan and Dawn Dolans house in Hingham Massachusetts. Dan Dolan used to work full time at the New England Aquarium in the GOT, but due to covid now works part time at their offsite Husbandry Facility in Quincy. Since I would be going in to work with him on Saturday, it was best to stay the night there. Dan and Dawn took me out to a wonderful restaurant and I swear they knew the entire town! So many people approached them, it was a very friendly night. I had the best gnocchi pasta with a bolognese sauce that their friend who worked there recommended. After dinner we went to a local concert that their town has each Friday night and met some more friends and got to see the marina. I was exhausted from the week so I ended up going to bed early but it was a great night.
The next morning Dan and I drove into Quincy which was very close to his house which was so convenient. Aside from the husbandry, this is where the sea turtles are rehabilitated that get cold stunned off of the Cape during November and December. Dan gave me a tour and introduced me to the people he works with, and then I went to work in the sea turtle rehabilitation area all morning.
I worked with Colleen, a volunteer in this department, as the staff had to respond to a situation in the Cape. I started by cleaning all the toys and structures that were in the tanks and Colleen vacuumed. Once that was done we got to prep the food for each of the turtles. This consisted of cutting fish and squid. I was very good at de-beaking and de-penning the squid this time as I had practice from the day before. Colleen let me feed some of the turtles and I was able to understand how they had to meet a certain weight of food, not exactly a certain amount of fish or squid. I loved this one turtle and hung out next to his tank for a long time since there was glass on one side to see him. We also went outside and down to the water to collect a live crab to feed one of the turtles. They were training some of the turtles to catch their own live food as they were close to being released back into the ocean. I had a great morning learning about cold stunned turtles, and headed over to the Husbandry side for the afternoon. I have to mention, I had the best sandwich of my life at lunch. Dawn picked them up for us and it was just an amazing sandwich, with a perfect amount of every ingredient.
After lunch I helped feed the stingrays which was so fun! They were trained to swim to the surface to feed, and they suctioned to your hand to get the piece of food. Each stingray was fed out of a different container though, so I had to make sure I was identifying each of them correctly so they got fed the right amount.
I was also able to prepare chemicals that would be put into a drip into some tanks in order to regulate them. It was great to be able to actively help, and not just observe. Dan and I put our wetsuits on and got into the other tank that had stingrays as well. We cleaned the sides and tried to even out the sand in the center of the tank. No intern has been able to get in the water here, so it was a special experience! We ended the day with pizza, and I got to meet Dan and Dawn’s granddaughter! I felt very welcomed by them, and had a great stay. My time at the New England Aquarium has come to an end, but I hope to keep in touch with people I met and possibly become an intern here if I am living near Boston . I would love to work in Galleries or Penguins in the future!