JPG Magazine: Stories: Photo Essay: The Lucky Ones

The Lucky Ones

By Jessica Kuligowski

10 March 2008

It takes a very special kind of person to work in wildlife rehabilitation. On one hand, one has to love animals. On the other, one needs to know that they will see a lot of animals suffering. It can be as rewarding as it is heartbreaking.

As a volunteer at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Florida, it's a paradox I see every time I come in. The aquarium takes calls to rescue sick and injured whales, dolphins, sea turtles and river otters from all over the state of Florida. A few of these animals won't survive. Many more will never be able to be returned to the wild successfully. A few lucky ones eventually be released, but not before they have to suffer from sometimes traumatic health problems.

Some of these health problems are natural. Nicholas, the very photogenic Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, was orphaned when he was only about six months old - far too young to have learned any survival skills. His dolphin buddy Indy had multiple shark and dolphin bites. There's one sea turtle missing both left flippers from shark attacks, another recovering from an infected stingray wound, and a few that were simply "cold stunned".

Many, however, are the direct result of human impact, and a disturbing amount could have been avoided - by simple things like careful boating and discarding used fishing equipment.

Cocoa is an adult male green sea turtle who was found in Cocoa Beach, Florida, after being hit by a boat in the head ("Face of A Survivor"). He is completely blind and has a scar on his upper jaw as a result, which necessitates him being hand-fed. Although he frequently runs into his tank walls, he enjoys his back rubs.

Titus is also a green sea turtle, a sub-adult of unknown gender ("Surfacing"). He was also hit by a boat, but in this case on his carapace, or upper shell. Because of this, he has developed buoyancy problems, and can not easily stay on the bottom of the pool. This makes his likelihood of surviving in the wild very low, but he moves about his pool quite well and likes to try to eat the other turtles' food.

Bella and Cooper are North American river otters ("Best Buddies"). Bella is a juvenile female who was found abandoned by her mother in the swimming pool of a large resort hotel. Cooper is an adult male who was likely hit by a car, and has permanent spinal damage. Both otters are dependent on humans, but they still enjoy typical otter play, sleeping, and as shown in the picture, grooming each other.

Winter is a juvenile female Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and arguably the aquarium's most famous animal ("Her good side"). She was found off the east coast of Florida entangled in the line of an abandoned crab trap. In addition to causing serious lacerations all over her body, the line wrapped so tightly around her tail that the tissue was dead, causing it to fall off. She is now learning to swim with a prosthetic tail.

Even the animals like Nicholas and Indy, who stranded due to natural causes, have been impacted by humans - but in this case in a positive way: by those that care. These animals require food, clean water, medical care, and all kinds of attention. In "Unspoken Language," Nicholas is performing a behavior known as "hand stationing" with one of his trainers.

Many people wouldn't think twice of forgetting to throw out some fishing line, or speeding around in a boat, but that's all it takes to impact the environment and ocean life. These animals now serve as ambassadors for their species, and to remind us all to be more careful about our environment.

Just remember the next time you go fishing or boating: The next animal might not be so lucky.