Don't bother me - I'm Fishing!
Is this the big one?
Nope!
Ed had a ball yesterday morning. He caught 18 of these small fish. Of course they all went back in the water.
We arrived back home around 2:00pm. After a nap we went out to Chili's for dinner.
Today, we went back over to Clearwater Beach to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. This aquarium is a little different. They are a non profit organization whose mission is to rescue water animals and rehabilitate them so they can be released back in the wild. Sometimes the animals are so hurt that they can't be released because they would not be able to survive. They also have a lot of volunteers that monitor the sea turtles eggs. They put little cages over the nests to prevent them for being destroyed. They sit by the nests from 9:00pm until 2:00am at night waiting for them to hatch. Once they start hatching, they count them, putting them in a dishpan, and then they build a trench on the beach, put them in the trench and get them to the water. The sea turtles need to put their mark on the beach. They will come back to this same beach in 30 years and lay their own eggs.
This is Stubby!
Stubby has no front flippers. He can not dive to the bottom so he has to be hand fed. They feed him, and all the sea turtles they have there, squid that they fill with greens.
They most famous quest is a dolphin they call Winter. He got caught in a crab trap and lost his whole back flipper.
This dolphin is Nathanial.
Nathanial was found beached with his mother about 3 years ago. The mother did not survive and because a dolphin calf stays with his mother for several years to learn to survive, Nathanial never got the chance to learned this.
It was a fun day. Very interesting. Maybe someday we will be in a place where we can volunteer in a place like this.
If we ever are so lucky as to volunteer to help sea turtles survive and get to the water, I know someone who just might come and help some. Right, Kim!!
