Rescue to Release Game Premise: You are a member of the stranding team assisting with the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of an animal. Divide players into two groups, a turtle group and a dolphin group, and as they roll the dice they can experience different scenarios that animals face during rescue and rehabilitation. Introduction: Hi, my name is. I want to welcome you to Clearwater Marine Aquarium and thank you so much for supporting an important part of our mission: rescue, rehabilitation, and release. We help animals that are injured to get back to full health and then hopefully release them back into the ocean. We are always on call to help marine life like sea turtles, small whales, dolphins, river otters and more. What would you do if you saw an injured animal? You would call us if you were in this area or you can call 911 and that would transfer you to the closest marine animal hospital. We are always on call to help marine life every day of the year 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We are ALWAYS ready to assist, whenever the animals need us! To play our game Rescue to Release today, you re going to have to become honorary members of our stranding team. Who wants to help out? Excellent! (Assign one team to rescue dolphin, one team to rescue turtle. Can do this yourself, or have a team representative reach into the bag and pull out a turtle or dolphin game piece). Now, before we can respond to a stranding call, we have to go through some training, so you re ready to help those animals! The Training Stage: (Each team must answer one general knowledge question about their assigned animal: cetaceans or turtles. Teams will each roll their dice; the number they roll corresponds with the question number they answer. Also, whoever rolls the highest number goes first after both teams answer their questions. Ex: if turtle team rolls a 5, they answer Turtle Question #5. If dolphin team rolls a 2, they answer Dolphin Question #2. Turtle team would go first after Training is completed, since they had the higher roll.) Team Dolphin 1) What does the term stranding refer to? a) when an animal is unwell and comes onto the beach or into the shallows b) when an animal gets lost c) when an animal swims really fast 2) What species are Winter, Hope, and Nicholas? a) Harbor porpoise b) spotted dolphin c) Atlantic bottlenose dolphin 3) Do dolphins breathe air or water? 4) What type of animals are dolphins? a) reptiles b) fish c) mammals 5) True or false: dolphins chew their food. 6) True or false: dolphins have vocal cords.
Team Turtle 1) How many species of turtles live in the Gulf of Mexico? a)1 b) 3 c) 5 2) Do turtles breathe air or water? 3) What is the difference between a land turtle and a sea turtle? 4) How do you tell a male sea turtle from a female? 5) What is the correct name for a sea turtle s shell? a) house b) carapace c) armor 6) True or false: Turtles can only hold their breath for 15 minutes at a time. Congratulations! Now you are fully trained members of the stranding team. And in fact, we just got a call about a dolphin and a sea turtle in distress, so let s get out there and do some rescuing! (Team members roll the dice once to determine what s wrong with the animal they re rescuing, as the first six spaces of dolphin and turtle game paths are different maladies/injuries. After they land on a space and you explain the problem, they move ahead to the Enter Rehabilitation space before beginning next turn. From there, the teams alternate rolling the dice to advance through rehabilitation, following instructions on the board.) **The following are descriptions of the spaces that guests might land upon. Please note that you do NOT have to know these descriptions word for word. The important idea is that you can elaborate on each space, above and beyond just reading what it says.** TURTLE Rescue 1. Brrr, Cold Stun!: It s cold outside. How many of you live in states that get really cold during the winter season? The weather starts to cool down and turtles start floating to the surface and near the shore. Now, for those of you who don t know, turtles are reptiles and are cold blooded animals. They depend on the temperature of their environment to regulate their body temperature. Cold Stunning happens when the water temperature drops rapidly and stays chilly for awhile. The turtles cannot adjust to this rapid temperature change and become very weak. Their bodies are conserving energy in order to regulate their body temperature, but in doing so they have difficulty eating and surfacing for air. In past years, we have had seasons with up to 100 of turtles admitted in the span of 3 days. 2. Hooked! Uh oh, a fishing hook! Turtles can often swallow hooks by accident, which could result in damage to the esophagus. How would you like to have a hook in your throat? Ouch, huh!? 3. Paps! Fibropapilloma Virus,or what we like to call Paps,is similar to the herpes virus in humans. The FP Virus causes tumors on the turtle s soft tissue and around the eyes. These tumors are smooth or cauliflower-like in appearance. The tumors start externally and can soon spread to the internal tissue. The only way the external tumors can be removed is by laser surgery. You can see the laser in the surgical suite later today through the windows of the entrance. Clearwater Marine Aquarium is one of the five places in Florida that treat the Fibropapilloma virus (CMA, Brevard Zoo, Mote, Gumbo Limbo, and the Sea Turtle Hospital). There are different theories on how the turtles contract this virus. Some believe that environmental factors and immunity issues are contributors. Research is still being done to find out why and how these turtles contract the virus.
4. Boat Strike! Remember your training do turtles breathe air, or water? That s right, they have to come up for air! And unfortunately, sometimes when they are close to the surface, they can be struck by boats. Ouch! It s very important to keep your eyes open for sea turtles and other wildlife when you re out on the water, and to pay attention to Slow Zones or No Wake Zones. 5. Red tide!. One of the more commonly known natural occurrences, especially here in Florida, is something called Red Tide. This occurs almost every year. Red Tide is a natural occurrence of an algal bloom where algae rapidly changes the color of the water. The blooms take in oxygen from the water and release a deadly toxin. Red tide can lead to the turtles struggling to breathe, low heart rate, muscle twitching and lack of coordination. 6. Trash!: Plastic bags, fishing line, trash, Oh my! After a busy weekend, CMA gets lots of calls about turtles entangles in plastic bags and fishing line. (Turtles can confuse plastic bags for jellyfish, which is a yummy snack.). Another threat to sea turtles would be the ingestion of or entanglement in debris left in our oceans. Unfortunately plastics and other floating garbage collect in the sea grasses that serve as home the sea turtles. Sea turtles mistake our trash for food, which is not only toxic but can obstruct the stomach and prevent the turtle from receiving nutrients from real food. Have you ever seen lots of trash on the beach? If you do, remember you should always pick up your trash to help the marine life. Rehab 1. Enter Rehabilitation 2. CMA organizes a coastal clean up. Prevention is a very important part of caring for the environment. Organizing a local trash clean up is a great way to remove debris from an area near you before it can impact the local wildlife. Clearwater Marine Aquarium leads several cleanups like this every year. Keep an eye on our website to see when the next cleanup is! 3. Delays at the lab! Go back to Enter Rehabilitation. We don t have full accessibility right now to process all the blood work, urine, and fecal samples, so we send them off to various laboratories. We just got a call that they are overwhelmed with lots of samples right now and cannot process our samples today. We will have to wait so you will have to go back. 4. You pass a surprise USDA inspection! Move ahead to next HEALTH IMPROVING space. We could be inspected at any given time by the USDA so we need to make sure that our kitchen and exhibits are well-maintained. Our kitchen is cleaned by our volunteers 3-4 days times a day they put in over 40 hours a day cleaning. Would you want to clean that long? Well, somebody has got to do it! 5. Red tide bloom is fading away. This is great news! As the red tide moves farther offshore with the currents, we should start to see fewer animals coming in suffering from its effects. 6. HEALTH IMPROVING 7. Local hospital donates a new x-ray machine. Wow, this is great! Currently, we work with other organization to get x-rays done for our animals, and now we can do it on site! This will save lots of time so we can find out what s wrong and start rehabilitation faster! 8. A bad batch of fish takes extra time to sort. Move back to last HEALTH IMPROVING space. Every fish has to be carefully looked at and inspected to make sure it meets the standards for our animals. If a fish is missing an eye or a scale, we won t feed it to our animals. Our volunteers, interns and staff come in early in the morning to check and sort the food for the animals. 9. HEALTH IMPROVING 10. HEALTH IMPROVING 11. Clean bill of health, skip straight to release! Wow! You made so much progress in rehabilitation, that the veterinarian has cleared you for release! Skip straight ahead to the Release space. Well done!
12. Turtle has trouble catching prey. Go back to last HEALTH IMPROVING space. We need to make sure that the animal is able to catch live food before being released. They will put a various live critters like crabs and fish inside the exhibit to ensure they can hunt for their own food. If an animal couldn t catch their own food in our exhibit, do you think they could find live food out in the ocean? Probably not. 13. HEALTH IMPROVING 14. Fish prices drop, which saves money. Move ahead to next HEALTH IMPROVING space. Did you know that here at the aquarium we go through over 2,000 lbs of fish every single month? That is a lot of fish. It costs a lot of money to feed our animals. Looks like the price of fish went down a bit, which is great for us. Every penny counts! 15. Someone donates towels and blankets! When cold stun turtles come in, it is important to raise their body temperature. Covering the turtles with towels and blankets is a great way to do this. 16. HEALTH IMPROVING 17. Vet is running late, go back to last HEALTH IMPROVING space. Here at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, we have two veterinarians from University of Florida named Dr. Walsh and Dr. Pelton. They are part time paid employees that take care of the animals, monitor their status, and conduct the surgeries. Our team got a call that the vet is running late due to traffic as they are driving from Gainesville. The surgery for a sea turtle will have to be delayed until they arrive. 18. Grant money helps update equipment in our surgical suite. We get many different donations from companies and individuals that help us with our mission of providing the best care possible for our rehabilitating animals. We have many different types of equipment in our surgical suite and I encourage you to go visit our surgical areas by the entrance near the gift shop. 19. HEALTH IMPROVING 20. Turtle swims well in a deeper pool, move ahead to next health improving space. As a turtle makes progress, the medical team might determine they it is ready to move into a deeper exhibit. This way the team can monitor how deep the turtle dives. We want to make sure they the turtle can dive down into the deeper exhibit to rest, as they would do this in the wild. 21. HEALTH IMPROVING 22. HEALTH IMPROVING 23. The veterinarian removes a hook from a sea turtle s esophagus. The crowd goes wild (make the crowd cheer). Sometimes you might see us doing wound care or procedures in our surgical suite as we do get many turtles every year that ingest fishing hooks. The turtles are not able to really bring anything back up that they can t process, so fishing hooks remain lodged in their bodies. How would you like to have a fishing hook stuck in your throat? 24. HEALTH IMPROVING 25. RELEASE! (space shared with dolphin release) Dolphins: Rescue: 1. Crab Trap. A dolphin was entangled in the rope of a crab trap and it was tightly wrapped around her mouth and tail. Crab traps are meant to trap crabs but sometimes other animals can get entangled in the rope. Can anyone think of what dolphin here that was entangled in the rope? That s right, Winter.
2. Orphaned. A juvenile dolphin is found alone, presumably orphaned. Did you know young dolphins need their mom for several years to learn how to hunt for food, learn how to survive, and how to defend themselves. Baby dolphins can only learn the life skills from their own mom. Age is an important consideration when determining whether or not a young dolphin can be released. 3. Shark Attack. A dolphin was found near the shore with a laceration on the tail flukes from a possible shark attack. (Duh, na, duh, na, duh, na, duh, na.) Sharks are a big predator for dolphins. Shark attacks near the tail flukes can be dramatic because dolphins use their tail flukes to propel out of the water and swim fast away from predators. 4. Trash. A dolphin accidentally ingests trash and strands as a result. Dolphins can get confused when trying to hunt for food as they might accidentally encounter trash instead. What kinds of trash could you find in the water? (Kids say plastic bags, water bottles, glass, soda cans, etc). That s right. We all need to make sure that we always pick up our trash to ensure that animals don t accidently eat them. Can everyone raise their hand and promise me? I promise (state your name name) to pick up all of my trash so it doesn t get in the ocean. 5. Sunburn. A dolphin was stranded on the beach due to low tides. The dolphin was on the shore for quite a few hours and received a serious sunburn. The water acts like a natural sun block, so if dolphins are out of the water for too long the sun can burn them just like it does us. One of the dolphins here at Clearwater Marine Aquarium has some sunburn scars do you know who? That s right, Nicholas! 6. Respiratory infection. A dolphin was found near the shore looking very weak, possibly affected with pneumonia (maybe like a cold). How many of you have ever had a cold before? Respiratory infections can make the dolphins very weak, which can cause them to strand. Did you see Dolphin Tale 2? If you did, then you might remember the dolphin Mandy. Mandy was a real dolphin rescued by Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and she suffered from a respiratory infection. Rehab 1. Enter Rehabilitation 2. Stranding truck breaks down, go back to Enter Rehabilitation. The stranding van works just like an ambulance for injured animals. All of the equipment we might need, from towels to stretchers to water sprayers, are inside When an emergency call comes in, the response is much like a fire department or paramedic call. With the van broken down, we ll have to wait a bit for repairs! 3. HEALTH IMPROVING 4. A new shipment of zinc oxide arrives. Dolphin skin is very sensitive, and zinc oxide can be a good way to protect it from the sun. Have you ever gotten a sunburn before? Did it feel better when you put something on it, maybe some aloe? 5. Tropical storm heading towards CMA! Back to last HEALTH IMPROVING space. Living in Florida, we may experience heavy rainstorms, tropical storms or even hurricanes. Our team always needs to be ready at any time to get things ready in case the storm gets really close. We need to secure items down, put special window shields up, and make sure extra things are not just sitting around. 6. Local fishermen clean up debris from waterways. A big part of Clearwater Marine Aquarium s mission is to educate and collaborate with local organizations and people throughout the community. A team of CMA education members went out to talk to local fisherman about removing trash from the waterways. (Have kids go up to their parents to make sure they know to remove debris from the waterways). Fishermen sometimes leave behind crab traps after the season which can get entangled near an animal. If we can educate the public about the hazards we can work together to decrease the injuries to other animals.
7. HEALTH IMPROVING 8. With proper care, wounds get better every day. The wounds are improving so the trainers continue to monitor the injury site. Looks like the treatments are working! 9. HEALTH IMPROVING 10. Seminar with renowned stranding expert is very informative. Move ahead to next HEALTH IMPROVING space. Our stranding team is always learning and become informed about various ways to improve. We have stranding experts come in from numerous organizations like University of Florida, Marine Fisheries, and Florida Fish and Wildlife. We offer seminars and lectures to the public at least once a month that s our Making Waves Speaker Series. 11. HEALTH IMPROVING 12. New volunteers join stranding team. Move ahead to next HEALTH IMPROVING space. We are dependent on volunteers and interns that spend countless hours providing care for the animals. If we were to rescue an animal, usually round the clock care, 24/7, is required to take care of the animal. Luckily, we have an amazing team that is dedicated to our mission as they will come in at any time of the day to help with our animal care. When you get older, you can even volunteer here and if you know anyone that is interested in volunteering now that can always visit www.seewinter.com for more information. 13. CMA uses a special nebulizer. It is very important to get medicine right to the source as fast as possible. A nebulizer is a device that allows medicine to be inhaled. This nebulizer can help dolphins or turtles with respiratory illnesses get the medicine that they need more quickly and effectively. 14. Clean bill of health, skip straight to release! Wow! You made so much progress in rehabilitation, that the veterinarian has cleared you for release! Skip straight ahead to the Release space. Well done! 15. HEALTH IMPROVING 16. CMA organizes a coastal clean up to remove trash from the causeway. Prevention is a very important part of caring for the environment. Organizing a local trash clean up is a great way to remove debris from an area near you before it can impact the local wildlife. Have you ever picked up trash before, maybe for a cleanup? No matter where you live, cleanups are a great way to help save animals. Trash could be very dangerous for animals because they might think that it could be something else like food so they could choke on trash. We want to make sure that we always pick up your trash. Can everyone raise your hand and say I will always promise to pick up my trash so no animals eat it on accident Great job if we all do our part in cleaning up after ourselves we will leave the Earth a cleaner place for all to live. 17. Equipment maintenance. Go back to last HEALTH IMPROVING space. It is very important that all equipment be properly maintained, so it is always ready to go. Sometimes this may mean setting the equipment aside so it can t be used while repairs are made. 18. HEALTH IMPROVING 19. HEALTH IMPROVING 20. National Marine Fisheries determines that an orphaned calf has sufficient life skills to be released. Depending on the age for the dolphin, sometimes they may already have the life skills so they might be able to be released. We do not determine if an animal is released, it is determined based on various organizations like National Marine Fisheries. Government clearances is a very important step in the release process looks like you re one step closer to going home! 21. You can catch your own fish! Move ahead to next HEALTH IMPROVING space. It is essential that the animals be able to catch their own food before they are released. Our team will give the animals a live
fish test to ensure they can get food. If they aren t able to catch their own food, their release might need to be postponed. Luckily, that is not the case for this animal. 22. HEALTH IMPROVING 23. Medications are on order and can t be picked up until tomorrow. Go back to last HEALTH IMPROVING space. Medications are needed but sadly the pickup was delayed because the pharmacy has been really busy lately. 24. HEALTH IMPROVING 25. Release!! (space shared with turtle release) Release (for both animals) Congratulations, stranding team! Let s have a round of applause, you were able to help get these animals back into the ocean! We could never have done it without your support. I encourage everyone to head downstairs to our animal hospital near the entrance and see some of the animals in our hospital. And one more time, what is our motto? That s right, rescue, rehabilitate, and release! To learn more about the releases, we encourage you to visit seewinter.com and also add us on social media like Facebook and Twitter. If you live nearby, you might even be able to see a release in progress! Thanks again for your help, everyone, and have a wonderful day! (Note If one team finishes much sooner than the other, they get to help the other team win by rolling their dice and adding the total of two dies together.)