45 Organizations, One Mission: The Oiled Wildlife Care Network

If you see oiled wildlife, call the OWCN 24-hour hotline: 1-877-UCD-OWCN (1-877-823-6926)

Frankie Lill coordinates wildlife oil spill response for the entire state of California. She also used to work with us, and is making this podcast cooler by the second. In this episode, she breaks down how the Oiled Wildlife Care Network mobilizes within hours of a spill, what it really takes to rehabilitate an oiled bird, why blue dish soap is still the MVP after decades of research, and reminisces on her past work (of being a social media SUPERSTAR) at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

In this episode:

• Frankie's aviculturist background at the Aquarium of the Pacific and her role as Wildlife Planning Specialist on the OWCN team
• How OWCN was created in response to catastrophic spills in the late 1980s and early 1990s
• The four R's of OWCN's work: readiness, response, reaching out, and research
• What happens when a spill is activated, from the planning meeting to boots on the ground within two hours
• The full care journey of an oiled bird: field capture, stabilization, intake and processing, pre-wash care, washing, conditioning, waterproofing, and release
• Why inland oil spills are more common than most people realize
• How the network prepares responders for every species

Get involved:

• Learn about OWCN and find member organizations
• If you see oiled wildlife, call the OWCN 24-hour hotline: 1-877-UCD-OWCN (1-877-823-6926)

Episode resources:

• Aquarium Staff Lend a Helping Hand to Oiled Seabirds in Ventura County
• Aquarium Staff Members Helped Rescue Animals Affected by the Oil Spill
• Aquarium Aids in Rescue Effort to Save Baby Seabirds
• Beautiful turban snail video

Episode photo cover courtesy of OWCN/UC Davis

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hi, I'm Erin Lundy. And I'm Madeline Walden, and this is Aquarium of the Podcific, a podcast brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, Southern California's largest aquarium. Join us as we learn alongside the experts in animal care, conservation, and more. Welcome back to the Aquarium of the Podcific. My name is Madeline Walden. I'm the Aquarium's digital content and community manager. And I'm Erin Lundy, the manager of conservation initiatives here at the Aquarium of the Pacific. And today we had on, you're gonna hear it in a minute, Frankie Lil, who is a former Aquarium of the Pacific employee who is now employed by the Oiled Wildlife Care Network.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Frankie is actually a huge reason why I'm involved in conservation at all. And in fact, she is the one who let me know about OWCN when I was just starting out here at the aquarium, and that she had joined it and she was participating in some of the oil spill and disaster response that that network participates in. The Aquarium of the Pacific is one of about 40 member organizations that are part of the oiled wildlife care network, making up the network portion of that, all throughout California, primarily comprised of wildlife experts and rehabilitators who can make a huge difference to the animals that are impacted by natural disasters and oil spills. We are very fortunate that that network exists in California, and I guess by fortunate, I just mean fortunate that there was a lot of logic and planning that went into creating such a large and robust network of wildlife responders. But Frankie actually gets to help with a lot of the personnel management and deploying people to a spill, which is pretty cool. So sometimes I get an email from Frankie, just like last week. Just like last week.

unknown 1:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

And in those instances where we are the network is activated, each individual responder will receive some communication about what is happening and what their sort of timeline and expectations are. There are sometimes certain levels of training that you have to hit before you are deployed to certain activities. And last week we did have an oiling event that did impact some birds. The Oiled Wildlife Care Network activated in order to get people out there to help collect those birds and also to survey what was going on in that area. And I was fortunate enough to be one of the people who was deployed to assist with that. It was pretty cool, and it is honestly always my favorite thing to be around people who are so passionate about saving wildlife that they would put on an entire Tyvek suit over and over and over and over and over again every time they see a bird that needs help. And it is not easy to put on all of the PPE that is required to respond to an oiling event, including PPE that helps protect from highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as HPAI, that is currently very prevalent across the United States, but here in California as well. So all that to say, the Old Wildlife Care Network did activate in response to some birds that were impacted by oil in Ventura County, and a handful of responders did deploy to respond to this event. We're very fortunate that the network exists for reasons like this, that a handful of wildlife could be impacted by something, and there exists a network of experts and professionals who will drop everything that they had going on, including a podcast recording, in order to go and respond to these types of activities.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah, I guess it's pretty important.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

It is broken that you missed a recording.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

That's totally fine by me. What should people do if they see oiled wildlife?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

If you see oiled wildlife, it is pretty important that you let somebody know. And so if you called 1877 UCDOWCN and report that oiled wildlife immediately, that would be enormously helpful. Please do not feel like you need to pick up oiled wildlife. The oil can be incredibly dangerous, as can the wildlife. And so it is critical that we activate the correct people. So again, that number is 1877 UCD O W C N, and it will be in the show notes as well. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

And we'll leave it to the experts to take care of it. Like Aaron. Thanks, Frankie. Frankie is so knowledgeable and she we learned so much about how OWCN operates. And I'm so excited for you guys to get to know her. And she's one of the coolest people I've ever met. So sorry, Madeline. And now she's on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

And now she's even cooler.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

So now she's making her podcast cool. Thank goodness.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Thank goodness someone made it cool. Someone there has been waiting. Neither Madeline or I have brought the cool to this podcast. We're trying. Yeah, but we're failing. Trying to be cool is like the opposite of being cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

I know. Well, that's why we have Frankie here today. Fair. So anyway. As always, you can email us at podcific at lbaop.org. Please email us. Please email us. I love email. Please email us. What is our email? Podcific at lbaop.org. You can also follow the podcast at podcific on Instagram. And also, we would greatly appreciate your five-star reviews on whatever platform you are listening on, whether that be Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Your five-star review means so much to us and also helps our podcast be shown to a wider audience. So we appreciate that. And let's get into the episode. We'll see you next time. Frankie Lil. Welcome, Frankie. Hi, Frankie. Frankie Lil is the wildlife planning specialist at the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. And also our former colleague here at the Aquarium of the Pacific. So this is really exciting. This is the first time we've had an external guest on that also used to work here. Yes. That is correct. What did you used to do here at the aquarium?

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Lots of things. I know. Primarily, I was here to work with the birds and then the herps. They did a lot of frog stuff with Aaron. Yeah, we were froggers together. Did a lot of social media stuff with Madeline. No, I I oversaw a lot of the volunteer program within the bird and mammal and amphibian department, and I also was on the team of aviculturists who maintained the bird habitats. I think my claim to fame is penguins and puffins.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, definitely. Now that you don't work here anymore, who is your favorite animal at the aquarium?

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Here? Yes. Well, today I was very excited to work with the snails. Work with see the snails. Babylony.

unknown 5:53

No.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Just snap snails.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Which is in the shorebird exhibit.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Oh snails, I know those snails. Yeah, so send me a video of them. They're gonna we're gonna post them soon. The snails. Yeah, they're beautiful. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Yeah, I would agree that that is my new favorite video.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

No. Oh, it's not mine. I'm trying to think what my favorite animals are. It's gotta be a frog. Probably the mountain yellow-legged frogs. They're pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Frankie and I had the opportunity to actually start that program here together. And so we were both very critical for the development of our existing protocols and our successes with our releases of our mountain yellow-legged frogs. And even though Frankie has moved on to do oiled wildlife things, which we will talk about today, her legacy carries on in that frog room. And there's actually a lot of stuff that you help to develop that is still in practice today. So thank you, the frogs, thank you. You've saved the frogs.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Well, I love that you are still continuing your work in the conservation field. What are you doing now? What does your life look like outside of AOP?

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, I it's kind of like a twofold answer. So I work within the Old Wildlife Care Network's management team. So there's 10 of us that live up at UC Davis within the School of Veterinary Medicine, One Health Institute, Wildlife Health Center. And then there's us where it's uh we call it like a Russian doll, kind of nesting dolls of titles. But we are the team of people mandated to respond to oiled wildlife in California. So that's just nine or ten of us, and we cannot do that alone. So my role is actually helping maintain and manage our entire network of people. So the Aquarium of the Pacific is actually one of our member organizations. And during a spill, I do all the personnel coordinating and more, you know, whatever needs to happen.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

It's been really cool because Frankie and I used to work really closely together, and now if an oil spill happens, or if there's a training, or if there's something, I get to hear directly from Frankie to help coordinate our staff participation.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Because you are the contact, right? For for OWCN.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Frankie manages the N of the entire network. And so when we have things that happen, Frankie actually helps to manage all of the staff coordination that goes into it, which is a lot of coordination. A lot of emails from Frankie, which is good.

unknown 8:07

I know.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

But I I'm not involved at all, but it is also nice to see like Frankie pop up in my email time to time with random things and just cool.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

It's fun to have fun to have connections. I know, yeah. And I've we've been really fortunate that we've been able to be a member organization through the Oil Bild Life Care Network for a long time. I think we just hit our 20-year mark at the aquarium. I think we gave you a certificate last year and it said 19 or 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

I accepted the certificate, but I can't remember what it exactly. I know I gave it to you.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

I think it made it back here. No, I've seen it hanging in your office for sure. It's up there. It's framed.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

I think it's the center art piece in your office.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

I think it's the golden artist. I think I put it in Brett's office, so who knows where it went. But we have been a member organization with the OWCN for many years, and our participation has grown somewhat exponentially in the last five or six years. We went from having a couple of trained responders who could help participate in a spill to now 23 people who at any point can go out and help with an oil spill. So why don't you break down a little bit about what the network looks like on your end and sort of the structure of the OWCN?

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Yeah, so so I tend to split this up in like spill and non-spill times. So for non-spill times, I do a lot of the so I'm on the planning team. So I do a lot of the planning for the year within the training and engagement schedule, calendar, calendar, some say.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

As some may say.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Oh wow. So we we just you can't do equal things to both areas, but we try really hard to level out what each area needs. So I spend a lot of time helping to delegate the training schedule to ensure people can get important training. So when it comes to oiled wildlife response, we ask that you are part of a member organization, but we will teach you everything you need to know to participate in oiled wildlife response. And that's the nice thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

So is is that just a population thing, or is that because there's more risk of oil spill in Southern California versus Northern?

SPEAKER_03 10:25

It's gotta be a population thing. There's there's just not a lot happening in Humboldt North. I should say there there used to be. We we have so that was non-SPL Times. I do a lot of like the outreach, communications, just talking to people, managing the database, and the email. In Spill Times, I do personnel coordination. So all of the paperwork and communications to get responders from day one until the end of the operation, that's my role to help ensure that everyone is where they need to be with the tools that they need, clocking in and out of their time clocks, Aaron. Who's really bad at that? I wonder. No, no, no. It I understand because I've been on the other side of things where you're just busy, you you get there, you're excited, there's an energy in the air, even though you know you're walking into a very exhausting day, and there's signs, you just you just get excited to see people and start working that the time clock isn't the most important thing. And that's what I'm here for, to make sure that everything's lined up. Some sometimes that may feel like this daunting thing, but I it's easy for me, and that's what I do. I remind people to clock in and out. HR as you say.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

It's important, especially in kind of I would assume like it is organized chaos because it can't not be this, you know, this catastrophic thing. So you need someone there to kind of be the structure to the day, I'm sure. So making sure that you know you guys are clocking in and out. And is that to just record time, just so that way you can keep track of things?

SPEAKER_03 11:52

It's to record time, and also an oil spill that we are a part of is a legal case. So everything gets reported from how much staff and any kind of resource from food and things to support the humans to food and things to support the animals, and that includes did we need a boat, did we need boat operators, how many people are out in the field capturing things. So that kind of nicely leads into the other two departments of the OWCN management team. And there's the the the operations, which is everything that happens during a spill. Like we've got the personnel, that's me, and we're managing people, but the act the act of working around the animals. So from recovery, which is walking the beaches or anywhere inland to capture the animals, to animals being transported to a care facility. And what happens after that? The care facility. There's so many different areas. You have intake and processing, pre-wash care, the great washing of animals, which a lot of people are pretty familiar with the Dawn dish commercials. We do use Dawn, that is our number one question we get asked.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Sorry if that was on your list of things for later. There's a duck on the bottle for a reason, and it's because of the OWCN, actually.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

It is it is effective, and over the years, many different people have done research on the best thing to get oil off of animals, and blue Dawn remains to be the best.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Good for them. So there's a lot that goes into sort of the overall network and the structure. And so between the 10 people that you work with, that is who manages all of the network and personnel and the coordination and the operations of when there's an oil spill, the wildlife component of response, which does not take into account all of the other things that go into oil spill response, which is sort of like the cleanup and sort of keeping an eye on making sure there's public safety and things like that. But this is only the wildlife component, and all of that work goes into just making sure that the animals are recovered and they receive the best possible care that they can in a devastating emergency.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

It's a lot, I'm sure. It's pretty cool. Does OWCN only oversee California efforts, or do you guys go out of the state of California?

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Yeah, so we actually are mandated by the state of California, and I can kind of explain this after this brief sentence to only respond to oiled wildlife within California, and that goes out to the three mile in I think three mile international waters line and all the way inland, dry lake beds, state waters. Anywhere where there's a responsible party, this is kind of where my jargon comes in. So please ask for clarification. If there's an owner of the oil that spills, we will step in and be activated. But I am gonna take one step back and talk a little bit about the Office of Spill Prevention and Response through CDFW, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. So back in the late 80s and early 90s, there were some pretty big catastrophic spills. Exxon Valdez, the Huntington Trader Spill, and they it was a devastating toll on California's wildlife, the Huntington Trader Spill anyway. So the state of California was like, we gotta step in, we gotta figure out how we're gonna support and and and change this. And so the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, OSPER, was created and they're actually like our boss. So they activate the OWCN, they are where the money is from. And the whole uh institution or organization office, the whole office in in that whole branch in CDFW is funded by fees per barrel of oil that moves in and out of the state by these these key players at oil companies. So in a lot of ways it's in a company or a responsible party's best interest to not spill their oil because they're also paying for restoration of the habitat and n everything. It's not just the animals, it's everything.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Absolutely. I'd assume that nobody wants oil to spill. Right. But why do oil spills happen? That's the question.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

I mean, oil was introduced in what like Aaron's googling it as I petroleum has been used for over 4,000 years. Well, I mean plastic production. It's it's human human fault, flaws, intervention, and needing to create things that we use. Like all of our clothes, our plastic, the headphones we're wearing, the table we're using. Everything we do involves oil. And until something insane comes along that is hopefully more eco-friendly, that's gonna keep happening because there's just oil. So where we come in is we're able to have some highly skilled responders. Twenty-eight? Twenty-three, I don't know. Twenty-three from the aquarium of the Pacific. It used to be twenty-four, but then I left.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

So they took one from us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

But then you went to become a manager, so I think that counts for like 10 for us.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Yeah, no, no. So we have like a hundred, actually.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

I'm pretty sure that's how it worked.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

So uh another answer to that question is how do oil spills happen? And it's just how you think it is pipelines being ran into, whether that or bursting, whether that's underwater or pipelines within the land. That's ships just having some form of a leak, could be a crash, could be a fault of other regions, trains derailing, trucks derailing, trucks de-highway.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

And then when oil spills, so it happens now both inland and offshore, but the OWCN primarily used to respond to offshore responses, and now it's also inland as well. And so your realm has grown a lot, but it seems like offshore oil spills happen a little bit more frequently, probably just that's where the oil is.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

I I think I'm gonna disagree with you. In our experience, a lot of the incidents have been more inland, and people don't always recognize that that's where it happens. And it it could be a small puddle and 100 toads could be impacted, you know?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

And not toads. That's how I feel.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Thankfully, everyone knock on wood or plastic.

unknown 18:01

Or oil.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Knock on oil.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Don't knock on the oil, just don't touch the oil.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

So inland spills are happening more frequently, but potentially on a smaller scale.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Yeah. A smaller scale in when you like literal abundance of oil in the environment. Usually when you hear about a coastline spill, it's kind of drastic and it's being moved with the tides or whatever direction the wind is going. And it's a lot of land that you have to cover and I don't know, inland it it just it's different, but it's equally yeah, it's equally impactful. Yeah. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

I guess I didn't even think or consider that, you know, as obviously a water institution, my focus is on, you know, animals and water, but I didn't even consider that oil spills can happen just about anywhere. Yeah. Would you say one is potentially more devastating than the other? I don't want to say that. No.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Think of the toads, Madeline.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

I know.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

If if I were to like step back and think about the whole picture, including the human experience, probably coastline, because it impacts people's lives. When I think about the pipeline P000547 spill of Huntington Beach that I responded to before I transitioned to the OWCN management team, we were walking 13 to 15 miles a day because it's just the oil was hitting everywhere. But the impact on the wildlife was thankfully really low. But we like had to close beaches. People were very upset about that. We had to explain what why there were dead animals. It's a thing. And so I think if I were to really think about the entire experience, probably coastlines for that reason because it's louder, peep there's more media, especially SoCal. We're lucky enough to have Hollywood.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Yeah, yeah. I think the Huntington Beach Roll spilled P000547. Oh, yeah. Nice. That spill was actually the first spill that Frankie and I responded to together. 2021?

SPEAKER_03 19:56

It was all in the same couple weeks as the Mountain Frogs opening, too. It was a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

It must have been 2021.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Yeah, the turns were in the same three months, so there was a lot going on.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

It was there was a lot going on. And it was all the year after COVID. But Frankie and I were actually sent out to respond together on some of the days, and we were walking the beaches and looking for animals. And I remember the worst part to me is seeing Crystal Cove State Beach, which is like this beautiful protected marine reserve covered in oil. Every tide pool covered in oil, animals covered in oil, and just like how devastating the impacts of that individual spill. And that was a pretty big oil spill, but it isn't even near the biggest oil spill that we've had in California. And even for that to be the impact, I think with petroleum, it tends to rise to the surface, it floats on the surface of water. And so a lot of animals just landing on the water, like seabirds who normally would just kind of float there, get oiled on their underside just from landing. We saw dead sea slugs, that was the worst. That was the worst. And then you wouldn't think that they'd be impacted, you know, so far under the other.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

You don't think about fish and inverts, but I guess that's a good topic for the the three of us to talk about because that's a big part of aquaria. Sure. Are the fish and inverts, and they were impacted. And that's not a key area that the OWCN works with at the moment. Maybe future research will allow for better. How do you watch skills?

unknown 21:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

I think the bigger question is how do you capture a fish without re-oiling it? Like so that you know, things to think about.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

I'll think about it. So I remember responding to that spill with Frankie and being a part of that. And that was when I was pretty new in the network. And so all I was really doing was just doing surveys, taking photos, which all go towards evidence towards this case. Like Frankie said, it's all a legal case. Uh that builds against the responsible party to just say, hey, this is the impact that this had on the environment. And it was both a very eye-opening experience to see just what one oil spill can do to like three hundred sh mile stretch of coastline in here in California. And also to like the most beautiful beaches that you've ever seen, and just covered in oil and everything has tarballs all over it, and it was The worst. But what was the best, the silver lining, is seeing how rapidly this network can mobilize and come together. And we were out there within a day of the spill really being reported. And there was a centralized network set up at Wetlands and Wildlife in Huntington Beach that allowed us to kind of centralize all the animals. And that was where everyone would meet in the morning, make a game plan, talk about the site safety, and then go out for the day with whatever activity was planned for them. And having been a part of the network further on now and kind of getting more training, I've seen how much coordination it takes just to have that happen. It's pretty cool, but it's also pretty intense. So what's that like for you when a spill happens? It's I mean it's exciting in the like worst way, of course.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Like Well, I can assume I think when you say exciting, it's exciting because you know that the work that you're about to do is gonna be impactful. Yeah. So of course the the situation that caused it is not exciting or thrilling or anything, but it's like I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna be a part of saving, you know, these animals. So I totally can assume that. Yeah, I I see what you mean by exciting.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

It's just everything we've been doing to prepare. Like we have four R's, which is readiness, response, reaching out, and research. And like I just said this yesterday in a presentation. I made up the number. 96% of our job is readiness. And that's what it's it's preparing people to feel confident and have all the tools and resources they need to respond. So when when we get a call, we have this meeting, it's just it's called the planning meeting. And it's where we coordinate everything, and we have this really great sheet that we go down, and every question that like we've known to ask, it's it evolves as things change. We're just able to answer it. We we can calculate how many people we need, and once we do that, that's where I get to like step in and start like calling member orgs, and Aaron would be a person that I would call. Hi Aaron. Hi, something happens. Something happens, and do you have time to talk? So I I get to be the one to kind of because people are excited to be a part of c conservation and participating, and especially if you've been in this organization for five, six, seven, ten years and you haven't ever responded, but you're ready.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Like that's a good feeling. Yes, you've been acting you're ready to be activated. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

So those first moments, we are expected to be like on the way within two hours of being activated.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

So we we always will get activated by OSPR, the Office of Spill Prevention and Response. But there's multiple ways to actually call in an oil spill, but if we get called by the public, our hotline will kind of reroute it back to OSPR. And it's so that it's a very intentional activation. We don't just like, hey, there's oil on the ground, there's a pelican nearby. We don't just deploy. So we still get like a go-ahead. But when we get the go-ahead to to go, like you know, it's like it's exciting.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, of course. What are the signs of a what are the beginning signs of an oil spell?

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Yeah, what should the public look for?

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Well, if you see an animal with oil on it, there's many different oscosities. That's true. Big word, textures, types of types of oil, like diesel oil is thinner and much more harsh to an animal's skin. If you are someone who's on the in an area and you see impacted animals, like usually their behavior just becomes halted. Like it's not what they should be doing. If you get a pelagic bird, like a grebe, which is a pretty common bird we see in the California coastline, and it's beached, a grebe should never be on land. They they they don't really do that. So, and and opposite, if you see a large marine mammal with you know, a big patch of oil, like you know, you know when it's not just their fur or feathers or skin. So that's how that's that's one indicator. But then also if you're at the let's I'm gonna keep using the beach as an example because that's where the people are. If you're at the beach and you just see black tarballs, which are or patties, which is just like a plop, a plop of it's like a fidget toy almost. Like it's like the the danger.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Don't touch the top. The don't touch fidget toy.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Like you know, slime, like you, that's like it kind of looks like that, but you see it coming in in like droves. It it's a lot. So if you see oil in the environment, or definitely oil on an animal, you would want to call our hotline, which is the oiled wildlife care networks hotline 1877-UCDOWCN or 1877-823-6926. And this is a 24-hour access hotline that is able to direct you in where you need to go. So sometimes there's just options. If you know for a fact that it's an oil spill and they're impacted animals, it might come straight to our team. There's categories, there's options. If there's no animals involved, it'll go to a different department that also oversees oil cleanup or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Can you share a story of a particularly challenging wildlife rescue and what was learned from that experience?

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Yeah. Honestly, there's one that comes to mind, and AOP is actually a part of it. Since my role is more administrative, I don't get deployed very often. Of course, I have animal husbandry skill sets and I I was just doing care for six days in a row. And she's really good at it. Oh. I I have those skills and I'm pretty proud of the the level that I'm at with those. Still things to learn, but really truly my role is personnel coordinating. But when I responded to that P000547 spilled in Huntington Beach, I was in Crystal Cove State Park, and there is a conservancy there, which is a nature conservancy, and they were I was capturing the bird and they were filming me, interviewing me right in the moment. And I actually had made a mistake with my with my clothing. So it's very crucial that you tape up and keep yourself really protected, and it was a it was a total accident. It's not something to brag about. To me, it was this huge learning experience that, like, hey, you are being watched, like it's okay mistakes happen, but now this is like this is a SoCal Newport Beach response. And someone was interviewing me like with the whole setup and it went viral, and I'm now embarrassed. But that's not our proper clothing, it's not how we wear our white Tyvek. It's not like I just I had one glove untaped, and we had to work with that. And like I was embarrassed, I'm still embarrassed to this day.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Noble Frankie out there, like doing amazing work. And granted, like, yeah, you are putting yourself at risk, of course. And we'll get into you know why the public shouldn't just rush to an oiled animal or or try and assist in these efforts and why these protocols exist. But I think that you know it's very obvious your heart is in the right place. And even participating and doing the training for these things, I think it's it goes to show that just like you know, you want to help, and everybody has that in them. And we'll talk more about like, you know, why, why, why that is such a big deal, but you know, it's it's just oil. Why don't we why can't it touch your skin? No, it's not good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

And that Frankie, if I remember, yours and my role was originally just like doing surveys and it was opportunistic that there happened to be a bird that needed help. And so because Frankie had the skill set and was in PPA, apparently for the most part in PPA. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

It was literally one piece of tape that I didn't have, and I was so embarrassed. But but the reason why it was like it's a capture that I I that was hard for me is because I was being interviewed from the second I got out of the car to back in the car with the animal. And we get told in all these trainings, like you might get you might get addressed, and I actually was my very first bird. So so that's what made it challenging. Thankfully, the actual capture was very easy.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

That pedimit was great.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

It was just on the beat sand and I picked it up.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

I'm sure it was just there.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

This is me. I make things complicated.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

I mean, you at that point you're picking up penguins day to day, you're picking up puffins, like it's it's was pretty awesome. You have the training for it. I can imagine too, you know, it's an emotional experience, you know, while you're in it, and having to, you know, to transfer your energy so quickly into going into action and then someone coming up and asking you what you're doing. So I can only imagine that like in those moments, having the clarity to be able to even speak to anyone, like even your colleague who you were working with, like it's gotta be difficult. It's gotta be challenging all around.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

I I have to say, and I'm this isn't because we're just in a room and you're having me, what the Aquarium of the Pacific gave me in my time here is that professionalism to be able to it's because you had me on camera so darn much. Yeah, Madeline.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

It's all you, man.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

No, but really like the whole like just remembering what how you should represent yourself. And we did, you know, sometimes three shows a day on microphone, and then we did more with social media. So I do feel like that grace, and I did Toastmasters with and so we we just shout out Toastmasters. Shout out to the wave makers. If you want to join, I'm sure they're still going. They are. They just open out. That's really cute. I was a member. So so i it's because of the training that I had here that really allowed me to even feel comfortable in that moment.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

So you have a lot of experience with birds and amphibians at the aquarium, and so you did a lot of handling of those species and those taxa, but oil spills affect everything, and that includes marine mammals. And so, how do you feel like you've been prepared through the network to respond to all of the different animals that might come through? Because it could be a baby seal, it could be an adult coyote. Like there's a lot of different animals that come through. How does the network sort of prepare responders to best handle different species, or do they kind of have specialists for different species come in and help?

SPEAKER_03 31:35

That has been the best part about being a network is that we have 45 member organizations with 45 different specialties, where some there's there's two organizations where their entire job, full-time mission is hazing and deterrence, so keeping animals away from the oil. And so when we need them, they're activated for just that role. And then we've got facilities that take in bears and coyotes and I'm sure other large carnivores when the time comes. And so we would call upon them. And then, of course, we have multiple really amazing marine mammal facilities that we honestly I feel so I'm I'm privileged and like sometimes like jealous of myself that this is like my past self is like, I can't believe you're doing this. But like we have had a lot of opportunity to go to each facility and get the hands-on training, including like participating in otter work, which is even harder to come by. And but you you are an otter expert yourself. If that incident were to ever happen with sea otters, it's detrimental. It's detrimental not only to the species, which is like bottlenecked on genetics, dwind not dwindling, they're growing in numbers, but they're stable, still endangered. They're stable. We're lucky to have you experts in the room to discuss the proper verbiage.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

I think that I know zero about washing an otter in the case of an oil spill because that hasn't happened in a really long time, both thankfully, but also a little bit worrisome, right? Like if you don't have practice doing something, how do you know how to do it when the time comes? And sea otters are so adversely impacted by anything that messes their hair up, because they love a good hairdo, and also that's but that's what keeps the otters warm. And so if their fur is at all impacted, they will become hypothermic and then eventually they'll pass away. And that's what oil does, messes your hair up real bad. And for a lot of marine mammals and birds, that is the major impact that oil causes when it impacts their feathers or their fur. And so we hope that there's never an oil spill in a major sea otter area. But if that happens, we need to be ready. And it's been cool to see a lot of different organizations and members of the network participate in sea otter work to just learn how they move, because they move real weird. It's not what you expect. They're basically just weasels. Yeah, a little weasel and a huge bag of skin that you don't expect to move the way that it does. And they're strong and they're fast and they do things that you wouldn't expect. And similar to any species, right? Like, if you don't know how to predict what that animal is going to be doing, how are you ever gonna catch it out of the ocean in order to help provide care for it? So it's been cool to be part of a network that so prioritizes teaching people the necessary skills and just readiness, one of the R's so that when and if, if and hopefully not when, something happens, we're ready. And hopefully we can save that species if something that bad ever happens.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

Yeah, and like on the bird side of things, like we worry about snowy plovers. Mm-hmm. They're like someone oftentimes someone like we'll say a condor, a California condor. Hopefully they just remain up in the trees and don't actually come down here. Don't don't come down here, but like animals like snowy plovers, which are threatened and endangered species, and they're on many lists to be protected. They're kind of in like very small and less aggressive than a sea otter. They are very particular in how you capture them and work with them. And delicate.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

Like you have to be so careful with a bird that's like four.

SPEAKER_03 34:55

Yeah, so it's the network is just this extraordinary group of people who not only love to be a part of the OWCN, but they want to be a part of it. And they want to like who wants to write a protocol? Actually, Aaron Aaron wrote a protocol back in the in the before time or something. So we've seen it.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Who wants to write a protocol? Aaron does wonder.

SPEAKER_03 35:18

Is a small subset of people who do want to write protocols. And those people are wonderful for what we do because those protocols help there are guiding documents to help us make sure we stay in line. Yeah. Things happen, not everything's things happen, not everything's the same. It's hard to follow a checklist, but being informed is super helpful.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

And what I helped to develop was our protocol for response in the event of a very contagious respiratory disease. I wonder what could have possibly catalyzed our need for that. But because you're in a very tight enclosed space when you're responding to a spill and you are in a car with someone, and can you have the windows down? What safety precautions can you take to protect yourself as a human when you're around these animals? Does this disease potentially transmit to animals? Like there were a lot of different considerations when there was a global pandemic happening that might have caused, you know, mortality in humans as much as it might have in animals. So it was really cool to see the network come together and be like, hey, you know, we have to brainstorm something, and we are gonna get some people together to work on this to keep our responders as safe as we keep our animals. So I very much appreciated being a part of that, and I love writing protocols.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Well, just think about like all the things you listeners have learned about Erin in the last two seasons, three seasons. Oh yeah. 14 seasons. Many episodes about all the things that she does and just add on, like, oh yeah, by the way, she's helping out the OWCN with protocols and how to move forward in this world. Paperwork. It's my favorite of America. I think that's why we work well together. Yeah. Because I, you know, don't. No, I do. I get it. It's important. You're just more organized than me. Frankie sends some great emails.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

I don't know if that's true these days. But that I've sent great emails. The organization. Because at the beginning of this talk, you mentioned how great my emails were. And now they No. Now we're in the roast part. We've brought you here to roast you. Fire and oil go very well together.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

It's really cool to see like how involved Erin is in something that is technically outside of her job. I guess not in the world. The most flattering podcast to me. It really is. You do so much. And on top of that, you're here today hosting a podcast. So before I fly to the city. Before you go to the case, I know, exactly. So are you packed? No. Nope. Why would I be packed? Because you're here. Let's talk about these protocols for caring for wildlife. Yeah. Affected, oil-affected animal. What does it look like when you do, you know, have an animal in your care? I'm sure it's different per animal, but what are kind of the meat? I guess we can stick to coastline. Let's stick to birds.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Let's start with the grebe.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

So Frankie picks up the grebe.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

The grebe goes in the car. The car goes to the facility. What happens to the grebe?

SPEAKER_03 38:00

I don't know. I drop it off. No, I'm just kidding. Usually if it so if it if we're in a scenario where we have two like a stabilization center set up, we're just making sure that the animal is stable enough to make the transport to the next stop, which would be its primary care center. So we're making sure that it's warm. These animals are cold, they've likely lost their ability to maintain their waterproofing. Again, if we're talking about a grebe, they are losing their buoyancy, they're expending all their energy to try to be warm and waterproof and buoyant. And so they're cold, they have no like calories in them. So our goal is to get them warm. We might tube them or gavage them to with some warm water.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

What's gavage?

SPEAKER_03 38:46

Gavage is love saying that. Yeah. Gavage. So French. It's a really flexible tube that you put down the animals' throat to that goes straight to their belly where we then input lots of warm goodies.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Got it.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Gavaged it. Gavage. So yeah, or just like a tube. Sometimes we say tubed, sometimes we say gavage. Gavage.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

Frankie's gavage or someone's gavage, the group.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

Yeah, or or maybe it needs an IV, maybe it's in a little bit more of a critical condition. So there are people who that that's what they're doing, is they're ensuring the animal is getting what it needs. Maybe they're doing a quick, a quick exam to see like is anything majorly fractured or broken. Otherwise, there's not a lot of handling of the animal. And when it's ready, it'll go to the primary care center. And that's where ultimately the bird's gonna be washed and then released. But before it even can be washed, the animal gets intaked and processed. We I kind of touched on it earlier. It's a legal case.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

So documenting every single pretty much everything, including the animal.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

When the animal is collected, we actually use an app that like is connected to the database that we're using, and there's a QR code, and you literally take a picture of the animal with the QR code and it links it to an it creates a new animal file for it. And that file follows the animal until it's released. So everything's potentially released.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Because I'm sure sometimes the animal is ineligible for release or needs to need to be held or or unfortunately deceased or for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

Yeah, yeah. They're and and we'll collect all oiled animals. So whether they are we say DOA, which is dead on arrival, so deceased or or unfortunately have to be euthanized or put into a different type of care scenario because they just their injuries just they're not they're not where we we can easily care for them in a big scenario.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

So every every animal is documented.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

Every animal seed that's oh yes, every animal is documented and so yeah, so upon collection it gets like a QR code and that's basically its ID. So then when it's being intake, that's when they're getting their first like real exam where you're feeling the all the bones, making sure the wings are again, this is a grebe, making sure the wings is not a frog, are not broken or fractured, and and there are experts who do this every single day, so we lean on them. Me being in that position right now would would be silly because I have some things to learn, but this is a is a learning opportunity as well. So you just making sure everything looks good if the if the bird is bright, meaning like alert and responsible. So B-A-R, bright, alert, and responsive. If if their only issue is that they are oiled, then they might be moving through our process a little bit faster. But if they're quiet, it's not quiet alert. I think it is Q A R is. QAR. There's lots of there's lots of different word letters we use, but quiet is basically a bird that is not it's not dying, but it's just like clearly It's going through it. It's it's going through it, lethargic and like it lots of issues.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

So you note all those things from the oil in some way.

SPEAKER_03 41:47

Yeah, so and then it gets processed, which is when you like take the samples of the oiled f skin feather for this is a grease, so it's feathers. And you fold it up in its little aluminum thing and you mail it off to some processing. Goodbye, bird. We're keeping your feather.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

We will care for this feather.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

And then it goes into pre-wash care, and that pre-wash care is two to five days of ensuring an animal is at a healthy level to be washed. Which people think we take the bird, we wash him, and we move him on. That's not true. It is really intense to wash an animal, and we want to make sure that their blood values are where they need to be, so that we aren't just overly doing it. Yeah. And there's a lot to think about. Temperatures, food, weight, injuries.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

It's probably pretty stressful for these animals that are not at all used to being around humans, and that might be a little bit scary for them. And so it's been really impressive to watch how the Oiled Wildlife Care Network is able to prioritize finding ways to work with these animals to minimize the amount of stress that they're causing all of these animals during all of the procedures that they do. But yeah, it is definitely a lot of stress on animals and monitoring their blood values and monitoring their behavior is critically important to make sure that these animals are as healthy as possible and have the best possible outcomes after washing and handling.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

And people have really fine-tuned the process over time. They have they have really you know, sometimes you get to the process by making errors early on. Like technology has changed, things have changed. Where we are at now is in a really sweet spot of of understanding the process, and it's so nice. And then once the animal passes its exam, it goes to cleaning and conditioning. So cleaning is when the great oil removal from the animal. Aaron's actually a cleaning and conditioning specialist.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

I received the training.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

Which is the big training that we you you kind of level up when you get to your specialty trainings, and this is when the the dawn is applied and the lots of scrubbing and intenseness and and then you go to rinsing. So rinsing is so important because that's when you're not only rinsing the oil off, but you're rinsing the soap off of it.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Yeah, it's not like that can just sit on the skin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

So if if you if correct. So a phrase that I learned a long, long time ago was like you're you're rinsing the feathers dry, which is a confusing because you want to make wet. But and then once they're like fully rinsed, you're ensuring a great good rinse, then you will begin that conditioning, which is when an animal gets themselves to a place of waterproofing or able to just maintain their level. So in a grebe we want to make sure that all of their feathers are dry. They should never be wet. So they could be if they're wet down to their skin, then you know that this animal is not preening, it's not ready, it's something it needs more. So it's a it's a process. An animal could be doing that for days, weeks. Everyone's a little different, but with lots of tubing and in and out, and you know, if the days are s are sunny, it's better and they're warm and they're in the sun, they go in and out of the pools, and then finally we recognize that they are waterproof, they are eating, we're not tubing them anymore. And then maybe there's a hurrah, we get to be released moments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

I have a question about the waterproofing process. So birds have a little bit of oil on their feathers, right? And that helps to keep them waterproof, and that is natural oil, not petroleum oil. Most birds. Most birds. And so is it primarily the oil or the structure of the feathers that is keeping the birds waterproof?

SPEAKER_03 45:25

This is a thanks for asking that. No, it's it's that's part of the process, is that feathers are they're meant to interlock that each each like little piece of a feather. I'm sure there's some like zoomed-in feather that is like an iconic. You can kind of see the zipper effect of what a real like a true healthy feather is supposed to look like. So it's a combination of the two. And it's funny, I'm having like flashbacks at talking about like the preen gland and the earpideal gland with sweet Madeline over the years. But that's most most birds do have a gland where they they give out the oil. They give themselves oil that keeps them waterproof. So they actually take their beak or a portion, maybe depending on the animal, their flipper, or they transfer oil from their beak to their flipper. And they are basically what's this called? I'm doing this. I know. What I'm doing is I'm preening my shirt. She's preening. They spread the oil all thank you. Spread. That was the word I didn't know. So they're they spread the oil all over their body. So with the combination of the perfectly interlocking feathers that are like a a blocking any water from getting through, and the layer of oil. That's what we're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

So if you see birds kind of like reaching back towards their tail, and then they rub their face there a lot, and then they rub it all over their body, that's their eupiteal gland, and that's what they're doing.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

And and here at the aquarium, the two best birds to see that are the penguins and the puffins. Yeah. You it's just like a a a really intentional visual where they like stick their tail feathers up and they get their face in there. Most of the birds here at the Aquarium of the Pacific do have that gland, but those are the two kind of because they live in water and there's like a whole thing to that.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

They're cleaning. Whereas if I did that, that would be the opposite of cleaning.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

Yeah, we might have to have a talk. This is not waterproofing. That is the opposite of waterproofing.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

So then animals go through this conditioning process. That conditioning basically means we are conditioning them to be healthy enough to be released and then go back out. And then once those animals are determined to be healthy enough to be released, what does the release look like? Do you monitor animals post-release or is it just kind of like go? I think that's the goal.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

That there's not always resources to monitor animals, and there's a lot of just public people of the public who choose to do that. Because some birds go out with really identifiable bands. Like the pelicans, if you ever see a blue band on the pelican, it's a part of a research project. So it was released. And then there's sea otters. They if if they go through a program within here at the Aquarium of the Pacific through your surrogacy program or the Monterey Bay Aquarium where they have their SORAC team, when animals are getting released, they they'll follow them with boats and sometimes helicopters or or more planes. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

I think that so like some animals get tagged and so some are able to be seen again. And it's been cool to see, I think there's been a couple of instances when we've had animals that have been released from some response that we've done, like we helped with an elegant turn, unusual mortality event in 2021, I think. And we marked them with the pink streak on their head. And then I remembered the year after, so it must have been twenty twenty that we did turns. The year after when we were out in Huntington Beach doing beach surveys, we saw these turns with a big streak coming.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

It was only two months before.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

It was an eventful year. That was a very eventful year.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

And then the next year was Pelicans. So it was a lot of busy.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Yeah. But yeah, I do remember seeing those young turns out there with big pink highlighters. Yeah. They were going through a phase. They were teenagers at that point, so they had big pink hair, but it was really cool. And it was cool to see animals that had been marked sort of just to keep track of how they were doing post-release, still have that a couple months later, and obviously it fades away over time. But they did look rad, so that was also really important.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

What can the public do? I mean, you talked a little bit about what the you know, how if you do observe an oiled animal or oil spill in any way to to call the hotline, which is one eight seven seven U C D O W C N.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

There it is.

unknown 49:29

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

And that thank thank you for your service. But what about preventing or assisting with oiled sp oil spills in any way? Should, you know, if you see an oil spill happening, should you run out to the beach and grab a bird? No, don't do that. Please don't.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

Their oil is not good for humans' skin, and if you're not picking them up properly, you just don't do that. But please call the hotline or or really anyone who's like in more of an emergency services type of role, they can help out. But honestly, like my mind always goes back to like a similar answer about like really kind of policies and like looking like what can you do to better your little community, your impact, whether it's educating on you know, to not have so much waste. Because it's hard. I can't tell someone like don't spill oil because it's not that's not the problem. And and a lot of times kids ask, like, how can I help? And I and I think it's important that they're educating themselves and understanding that if you want to really get involved, like join a local facility that you can help. So some the we're so lucky to have so many wildlife facilities around Southern California and in California alone, but just getting involved in any way with animals and wildlife and understanding their habitat and their needs, you just naturally become more interested in like how do I preserve this? So figuring out how to preserve even your local neighborhood pond, well, it goes a long way. But what else can the public do? Another thing that tends to happen is our our our centers are doing a lot of work and there might be an opportunity if you can't physically help to donate to these centers to maintain their readiness in the event of an incident. Because it's not always oil spills, there are things that happen that cost a lot of money still. So just consider looking into investing in any way, whether that's your own like actual self-volunteering at the facility or finding a way to get involved or maybe financial assistance.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

It's been cool when I mean cool is such a weird relative term because you don't want an oil spill to happen, but the outpouring of public support that happens when something happens, and people will show up and they'll donate lunches, they'll donate meals to the responders, they'll donate on soap or towels. And so I think it's easy for places to get overwhelmed by an abundance of resources that maybe they don't need. So if you reach out and you kind of figure out, hey, what does this facility actually need in the event of a spill response or whatever is going on, and finding a way to support that need is probably really helpful because towels and stuff get ruined pretty easily when you are washing an oiled animal or handling oiled animals. And so figuring out how to support those different rehab centers is probably pretty critical too. And supporting the responders is also nice because it's a lot of people working like 18-hour days just to make sure that these birds and other animals have the care that they need.

SPEAKER_03 52:27

But it's so nice to see everyone come together as a community and and a lot of people don't think to get involved, and this is not like an insult or a judgment until something happens. So it's also this like overwhelming, like I must help, I must help. So you're right, reaching out, or a lot of times the websites for each facility or even the OWCN will put what can you do to help right now as a resource on social media and websites to to help inform. And then I do a lot of outreach with young, young people from like kids, literally, where I'm just I have stuffed animals and I teach them how to restrain an animal. So, like middle schoolers and high schoolers who are thinking about being in this world, and I still kind of go back to like think about your own community, how can you preserve it? And with each day of learning more, like you just become a little bit more of an expert in protecting. So that's my answer. What we don't do in the OWCN is clean up oil, and a lot of people think that we do. We clean oil off of animals, but we don't clean the environment. There are other major departments and companies that come in and do that. So a lot of people ask us, like, oh, can I help you clean up the oil? And we're like, no. It's dangerous. Do that part.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

I was gonna ask, what does what does that clean up look like? What how is that even possible? If you you go down to Crystal Cove and you see that the tide poles are full of oil. Don't touch it. Yeah, don't touch it. But what what does the the cleanup and resolve of that look like?

SPEAKER_03 53:54

There were hundreds and hundreds of people that were either contracted through other companies or through the state, and they were walking the beaches, literally picking up each tar paddy, patty by patty by patty by patty. Patty by patty. And then there's other ways where you can you can dig and bury, and if it's on in the water still, usually you can skim, you know, they'll uh skimming with like booms and you know, boat stuff. And or the currents and the natural crashing of the weight, because oil is natural at the end of the day, it can be broken down. So there's there's many different ways to do it, but that example, I I saw it with my own eyes while we were collecting birds. Hundreds of people were behind us picking up patties, and they were actually helping us, like, hey, there's a bird over there. Yeah. So that was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 54:42

That was a really unique event, eye-opening process.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

I'm sure. I'm sure. Well, I think all of that is so wonderful, and maybe what we should end on is what's a piece of advice you would give to someone interested in joining a wildlife response team? I feel like I've never been asked this specific question.

SPEAKER_03 54:59

What piece of advice would I give to someone interested? I mean, I think the the core of that answer is find a facility nearby and and and see if that's something you're interested in. Whether it's aquatic birds or maybe you really love squirrel conservation or or anything, or or you know you want to work with large carnivores, like there are rehab facilities for all of them, and most of them are nonprofits seeking volunteer support. And some of them are only volunteers running the entire program. So getting involved will give you the experience, and you might do it and realize like, oh, this is not for me.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Yeah, I can assume that's that's true for a lot of people. Like I said, we talked about earlier. It can be a very emotional, emotionally taxing and physically taxing thing to do.

SPEAKER_03 55:45

Yeah, it's it can be incredibly rewarding, or you might find that like you are better at the administrative side of things. So I would just find something near you, and if you want to be within the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, if you are in the state of California, you can join any one of our 45 member organizations. And you can check out any of that information at our website, odcn.org, which will lead you to really everything you need to know to getting involved, including all of our member organizations, such as the Aquarium of the Pacific and many other zoos and aquariums and wildlife rehab facilities. So there's there's a lot of ways to get involved, and if this is what you want to do, I would go and and test it out and see that that's that's what you want.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

Yeah. Frankie, I have to compliment the OWCN one for giving me some of the best experiences that I've ever had in my professional career in terms of just being able to see a group of people come together and respond to an emergency. It is so devastating when these things happen, but it's also so heartwarming to see like there's 70 people here all of a sudden ready to go, and they show up at like five in the morning and they're like, what are we doing today? And everyone has their role and everyone does it really well. And the overall like demeanor and everyone is in not like a good mood, but like working really well together, and the synergy is really exciting to be around because it's people who have been trained and are ready to respond to this emergency who dropped everything in their personal and professional lives, and whatever it was that they were doing that day, gone out the window for probably two weeks, and they're just there to work for 12, 14 hours a day, whatever the need may be. And it has been one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen in my career. So the OWCN has done such amazing work for the time that it has been the network, and even over the last five or six years, as I've gotten more involved, it is the coolest thing I've ever had an opportunity to be a part of. So thank you to the entire management team and thank you to Frankie in general.

SPEAKER_03 57:46

No, but it's I do agree with you. I'm just lucky I get to feel that all the time. Yeah. Because when people come around and they like one of my mentors in this wildlife rehabilitation world, I met at a response the Kim Peterson who was with one of our member orgs and primary care facilities, Sea World, for a long time. I met her at a botulism event which botulism, which the aquarium participated in as well. And it's it's cool. It's it's unreal that feeling of like just fast friends and you trust that the people you're working with are all here for the same good people. Yeah. Good, good, good, good people, you know.

SPEAKER_01 58:30

Good people out there. Aaron, if a staff member is listening to this here at the Aquarium Pacific or the staff or volunteer, how can they get involved with OWCN efforts? Talk to me.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

That is probably the easiest. There are a couple of considerations that, you know, go into being a responder and really before you talk to me, think about hey, if something happened, do you have capacity in your life to leave for a week or two weeks at a time? And by leave I mean you might get deployed to somewhere in Northern California and not have all the creature comforts. Do you have the ability to do that? And it's okay if you don't. But definitely that is something that is a required part of emergency response. Is an emergency is going to happen in a somewhat unpredictable timeline, and you're going to have to respond to that. And sort of what skill sets do you bring to the table? And let's have a conversation about it. I am more than open to hearing everyone's thoughts and why they want to be a part of the network. We have both staff and volunteers here at the aquarium as part of our network, and some of our volunteers have been responders or just worked at a rehab facility for a really long time. We have veterinarians, we have vet techs, and so there are a lot of different skill sets represented. Even if you don't think you have the skill sets required, let's have a conversation about it because I think everyone can get involved in their own ways. And even if it's not a perfect fit for you, we'll find something that is a really good fit for you.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

I would like to apply that to all member orgs. Um that that's probably a similar conversation you'll have. Thanks, Aaron.

SPEAKER_02 59:55

Yeah, but don't talk to me. Don't talk to Aaron. Yeah. Unless you are here at the aquarium. I mean, talk to me. Do not speak. Don't ask me. Yeah, don't even look at Aaron otherwise.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:04

No, I can't, I can't. You just said that's so lovely.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

Talk to me. Talking to someone who doesn't work here right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:11

You don't know me.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

She's like, and it's really uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:14

And I'm gonna stop. No, talk to whoever your primary contacts are and see sort of what the process is of getting involved because it is a really, really cool network, but it takes a lot out of you and you put a lot into it, but it's the best. So talk to whoever is responsible.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:30

Talk to your Aaron. Talk to Find your Aaron. Whoever she is. Yeah. She doesn't exist anywhere else. We have her.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:35

Tyring. Dave. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

Thing. Well, thank you so much, Frankie, for coming on. And shout out to OWCN for partnering with us on this episode. This is amazing. And we appreciate your time, especially being here in person. It's so special. Thank you. All the way from Davis. Woohoo! We're so lucky. And we'll include links to everything relative that we talked about in our show notes, so check that out. And we'll see you next time. Hopefully you'll come back. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:56

Thank you so much for for inviting me. I secretly was waiting for way too long for the invite. And I guess you finally ran out of people internally. So you came externally. No, I'm just kidding. I really, really loved, I love both of you. I I love talking about this amazing work, and I'm really appreciative for being here. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

I love you. We're so happy you're here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:24

Aquarium of the Podcific is brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:30

Keep up with the Aquarium on social media at Aquarium Pacific on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

This podcast is produced by Aaron Lundy and Madeline Walden. Our music is by Andrew Reitzma, and our podcast art is by Brandy Kenney. Special thanks to Cecile Fisher, Anitza Vez, our audiovisual and education departments, and our amazing podcast guests for taking time out of their day to talk about the important work that they do.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

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