MORE TURTLES!!! And a very cool aquarium :)

Day 2!!! Very excite!! We woke up extra early to arrive at the turtle hospital at 7:30am, as per request by Jean. With morale high (and eyelids a little heavy), we got ready to experience another wonderful day helping all the sea turtles. Luckily, today was a lot warmer than the previous two days, which definitely helped to wake some people up.

I (Jane) was assigned to sick bay to help feed, clean, and treat the turtles that need extra care. Although the turtles in turtle bay were extra lively and friendly, each and every one of the turtles in sick bay had their own personalities as well. Sherri noticed that a lot of the turtles seem less sick than we had originally expected them to be. However, there were also turtles with very serious injuries, such as holes in their carapace and extreme lethargy. It was surprising to find how their treatments were similar to our (possible) daily supplements and treatments. In addition, there was a lot of hosing down the tanks and a few of us got rather wet, but that is all part of the job! I think in general, my favorite part about working with these turtles was seeing every turtle get lifted out of their tank and immediately spread eagle while being handled. Although we were tired and sopping wet by the end of it all, those turtles still easily put a smile on our faces (yes, even the sick ones). It always is truly inspiring and incredibly humbling to see these volunteers dedicate so much of their time and energy to help these turtles. Some of the volunteers have such extensive and unique backgrounds, and it is obvious how much they love these creatures.

I (Grant) spent my time in the turtle bay, feeding the healthier individuals and cleaning their tanks, similarly to yesterday. I fed one of the Green turtles, and then moved on to the large male that had come in a few days ago that was too large to be placed in sick bay. Yesterday he was sitting in about six inches of water with towels draped over him, but today he was slowly swimming around. He ate all of the food I gave to him, which was a good sign that his condition is improving, which I was happy to see. When I got some free time, I washed one of the cleaning brushes and gave one of the Greens (Pooh, who I was familiar with from the day before) a scratch. He seemed to enjoy it, since he kept coming back for more, although I was disappointed that he didn't do the little wiggle move he did yesterday. As I transitioned to working outside the turtle bay, I regularly passed the entrance to the sick bay, where the older volunteers were lined up in chairs talking. The scene reminded me of a bunch of women sitting on a porch holding their cats and talking about life, except they were holding little sea turtles instead. I'm assigned to sick bay tomorrow, which I hear is exciting, but I'm going to miss all my new friends in turtle bay for sure.

We then went to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher to help them clean out some of their exhibits. We split up into two groups: weed crew and limb/lob crew (helping to clear out some of the dead tree branches). Although some of us sustained some injuries and bug bites, we still felt like we spent our time well with the crew at the aquarium. We then went into the aquarium itself and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. The most exciting was the albino alligator and the touch pools. (pictures to be posted tomorrow!) Overall, very excited for the days to come and what else there is for us to discover!

Weeding crew helping to pull weeds in the
aquarium's nature play area.

Limbing crew taking a break from all the manual labor under
the tree shade.

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