We founded NECWA in 2005 to support basking shark and ocean sunfish programs. While whale watching we would see those animals, and people were always so excited to see them. We set up a community sighting network, with the understanding that the more eyes you can get looking at these fish, the better. Support for our sighting network has grown since and has helped NECWA become what it is today.
My favorite part of NECWA is being able to work with the amazing people of the community. We have about 50 to 60 interns ranging from high school or college students, who work with volunteers in the community on various projects. It’s great to see that not only are people concerned about these animals, but they are willing to do something about it.
NECWA has changed a lot, transitioning from a focus on whale research with interns and staff to more projects with other marine wildlife. We are very involved now with river herring and horseshoe crabs in the Spring. We tag them and count the number of females and males to better understand their movements. After the Spring we work our way into the diamondback terrapin season. Like for other animals, we weigh, measure, and tag them to identify each terrapin. Then comes ocean sunfish stranding season, which we are in now, having rescued a handful already. We send research samples all over the world, including to Europe. Everything we do is done for free, which includes education, research, and conservation.
I hear a lot that people always wanted to be a marine biologist and think that they can’t help if they aren’t, but that’s not true. There are so many other ways people can help, and you don’t have to have a marine biologist background. NECWA has so many other aspects (accounting, social media, educational outreach, marketing), and people can get involved in so many other ways no matter what your passion is. There are so many was to help out NECWA and get involved in conservation work both directly and indirectly, and all you have to do is reach out.
I think the person that inspired me most was my mother. She was leading the way for recycling in our community; speaking out, engaged, concerned, and that’s who kind of trained me that we can’t just stay by the wayside when it comes to environmental issues. We have to step up to the plate and do something, because it’s not something that is going to fix itself without us. The only way we can accomplish anything is with others. I have an amazing team and an amazing group around me, and I think that’s really important. If one person joins another person who joins another person, then it becomes a movement and that’s what leads to real change.
The season that ocean sunfish and sea turtles start to
strand begins in the summer and continues through December. The weather in those later months is often not the best. It gets windy rainy, quite often pretty cold, but when you’re out there walking and doing the work you realize how beautiful that is. Everything is done remotely now, and we are all stuck in front of computers, so we oftentimes forget how beautiful nature is even during months when it can get cold and rainy.
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