National Marine Life Center Receives Grant

BOURNE, Mass. - Sept. 22, 2016 - PRLog -- The National Marine Life Center (NMLC) in Buzzards Bay has been awarded a $69,361 thousand dollar grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.

         Executive Director Kathy Zagzebski made the announcement after she and the staff returned from a marine animal stranding conference in West Virginia.

"Our grant allows us to purchase a digital x-ray processor as well as support marine mammal rehabilitation supplies, medication, and professional staffing", Zagzebski said.  "This allows us to improve both the clinical diagnosis and treatment of each individual animal as well as the scientific information learned from each case."

         NMLC is the only seal rehabilitation center located along the eastern seaboard between Massachusetts and the Canadian border.

         Kate Shaffer, Director of Marine Animal Rehabilitation, stated that "Marine mammals are sentinels of the ocean ecosystem. What we learn from them can help us understand more about what's going on in the ocean ecosystem upon which we all depend."

         The Center has been rehabilitating turtles and seals, conducting educational programs for students, and contributing to the database of information on these marine animals for over a decade.

         Through the Prescott Grant Program (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/prescott), this year NOAA awarded 32 grants to nonprofit organizations, aquariums, universities, and coastal state, local and tribal governments that are members of the National Marine Mammal Stranding Network (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/report.htm).

         Zagzebski expressed her gratitude to NOAA and the John H. Prescott Rescue Assistance Grant Program for this award. "We are especially grateful to Representative Bill Keating as well as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey for supporting the Prescott grant program and the critical marine science and environmental services it supports in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts", she stated.