Mass Pilot Whale stranding/beaching in Florida Keys; A Report From The Front Line

We, Ocean Rehab board members volunteered during past three days at the Marine Mammal Conservancy to help with the rehabilitation of 4 Stranded/Beached Pilot Whales, and here’s what we know.
Volunteers are needed 24 hours a day and 7 days a week at the Marine Mammal Conservancy until further notice. No one will be turned down when offering to help in any way.
And yes of course this weekend had thousands of Volunteers and Environmentalists from all sectors but we all know the novelty will soon wear out and MMC will be on their own.
4 teams of 3-4 people are needed just for the Whales (in the water) 24 hours a day.
A total of 25 volunteers are needed at all times to assist with multiple other necessary tasks.
We pledge ourselves to help with organizing volunteers for the future tasks at hand.


Efforts to save beached Pilot Whales continues


Thank you for listening. William

Rescue Workers support beached polot whales at the Marine Mammal Conservatory

Our own Marion Pellicano Ambrose and Zoologist Patty Smukall leave Tuesday morning to join the Rescue Team at the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo. They will work 4 hour shifts ( shifts rotate over 24 hour periods) right in with the whales, cradling them and caring for them as they are too weak to keep themselves afloat. Marion will keep us updated as to the whale’s progress throughout the week.Ocean Rehab was created to engage volunteer citizens (Divers in our case) to protect their local wildlife habitat's and eco-systems (Reefs in our case).  Learn more about Ocean Rehab and the Reef Check Florida project at http://oceanrehab.org/

BLOW UP RIDES & BOUNCE HOUSES

Dawn Boyle

This past weekend a number of people were injured when blow up "rides" were blown into crowds by a gust of wind with children still inside of them. I HATE THESE RIDES!

I will first let you know that I do have a rather large blow up slide. We got it a few years ago for our daughters birthday party. Every time we set it up, someone gets hurt. I hate that slide!

A few years ago we had a kiddie party at an indoor party place that has the inflatables as well. At least three children received burns on their skin from going down the slides. Did I mention I hate these stupid things?

Another time at a large community party my kids were inside a blow up bounce and it started to deflate, I never moved so fast in my life to get my kids out of that damn thing before they were suffocated by it.

What is the story with these things???

Are there any safety rules that the manufactures or owners have to abide by???

I am happy to say that my children are no longer fans of these rides. I fell so horrible for the people who were injured in Oceanside, NY on June 4th. I have personal experience with a child being affected by PTSD from a carnival ride and I know that a lot of the people involved will have a long road ahead of them to be able to coupe with what happened and what they witnessed.