archiemcphee:Today the Department of Awesomely Good Deeds salutes an observant little girl walking a
archiemcphee:Today the Department of Awesomely Good Deeds salutes an observant little girl walking along the Indian Shores Beach near Tampa, Florida. She spotted an object on the beach that looked like a Cheeto, but upon closer inspection turned out to be a small seahorse in mortal peril. The girl scooped up the seahorse and put it into her beach pail, which she then filled with seawater and hurried to show her mother.The girl’s mother contacted the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) who specialize in rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing injured marine animals. They instructed the mother and daughter to bring Cheeto the seahorse to them where they identified Cheeto as a female lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus). This species changes color to blend in with their surroundings, which means she was probably living among red and orange sea sponges before being swept to the shore or plucked from the ocean by a seagull and dropped on the sand.“The chances of surviving being dropped by a seagull in the sand are small,” Don Stansell, a marine biologist with CMA, told The Dodo. “It’s amazing because all of the things happened at the exact right time and probably only in a two-minute window for her to have survived.”As Cheeto recovered from her ordeal the CMA shared her progress online:Last week the CMA pronounced Cheeto the Seahorse to be fully recovered and released her back into the ocean.Follow the Clearwater Marine Aquarium on Instagra or Facebook to check out more of their very good deeds.[via Bored Panda] -- source link