Wellfleet Public Library

Women in Science Series

IFAW's Marine Mammal Rescue (MMR) Team is the responding agency for live and dead stranded marine mammals, including dolphins, porpoises, whales, and seals, on Cape Cod down to the Southeastern border of Massachusetts, covering 750+ miles of coastline. Cape Cod has the highest frequency of small cetacean mass strandings in the world, driven primarily by the gently sloping sand flats, large tidal fluctuations, close proximity to fertile feeding grounds, social nature of the species that strand, and the hook-like shape of the Cape itself. Wellfleet specifically is a hotspot within a hotspot for these strandings. IFAW's veterinarians and biologists perform an in-field health assessment on every live stranded cetacean and those that are deemed sufficiently healthy are immediately released back to the ocean. Learn more about the critical work that IFAW's MMR team does right here in your own backyard!

Michaela grew up in Massachusetts- not too far from Cape Cod, where she loved to visit and spend as much time at the beach as she could. After graduating from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in Marine Biology, she began her career doing internships rehabilitating sick/injured seals and sea turtles. She then moved to the Cape and joined IFAW's Marine Mammal Rescue team, where she is now a full-time stranding technician. For the past six years, she has also worked seasonally at Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on their cold-stun sea turtle rescue team. When not at work, Michaela enjoys exploring all of the nature that Cape Cod has to offer!