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Turtles urgently need banana boxes
By adamg on Wed, 11/26/2014 - 11:14pm
You may have heard recently about all the sea turtles getting stranded on Cape beaches. The New England Aquarium, of course, is doing what it can to pick up the turtles and transport them to warmer climes.
The problem is they're running out of their preferred carriers for transporting the reptiles: Cardboard boxes used to ship bananas to supermarkets (Really! Take a look at this Aquarium hallway). This morning, the Aquarium put out an urgent plea to its volunteers:
The turtles are transported (and spend the night) in banana boxes. With the high number of turtles coming in we need more!
We are recruiting volunteers to contact their local grocery stores to request donations of banana boxes, pick those boxes up, and deliver them to the Volunteer Programs Office (by the Freshwater Gallery) at the main Aquarium on Central Wharf.
Drop offs can occur between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. 7 days a week (with the exception of November 27th and 28th). All we ask is that you let us know by e-mail or phone call the approximate time you will be dropping off boxes and how many you have.
The boxes need to be in good condition and still constructed. Broken down (flat) boxes or those in poor condition cannot be accepted.
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Comments
Thanks for bringing attention to this!
As a turtle/tortoise lover and owner of two tortoises, thanks for bringing attention to this Adam. My dad works at Shaws and can help provide banana boxes. They make great boxes for moving too btw. Very sturdy. Just need to reinforce the bottom.
Terry Pratchett would approve
Because on the flights south, it's turtles all the way down.
Think of the turtles!
I think the picture is from the Quincy rescue/rehab facility. Staff are counting turtles and trying NOT to go to sleep. Everywhere they turn, there they are - ninja turtles who got too chilly and lethargic and then swept into the Cape's elbow.
Maybe the banana king in
Maybe the banana king in Chelsea by King Arthur might have some. But as someone said , the acquisition of these boxes , plentiful I am sure , must be negotiated Big Cheese to Big Cheese. As the supermarkets must dispose of these boxes anyway, the problem would be storing them not broken down while awaiting pickup. This takes up space. So the head Aquarium Cheese has to coordinate the logistics with say , the Brothers Roche , the good cousin Demoulas , the formerly local merchants Stop and Shop and Shaw's . Then someone has to come up with the wheels to gather the boxes. Simple in thought, difficult in application. Need the pressure from the Big Cheeses.
too pessimistic
This just is not as hard as you purport. Getting boxes can certainly be done through crowd-sourcing without involving the Big Cheeses. If just a few people from the produce section of a few grocery stores see this posting and are inclined to set aside their banana boxes and arrange for them to be transported to NEAq, I am sure the aquarium would have enough for those turtles in short order. It would not take that much effort to get a hundred boxes. Think of all the banana boxes that must turn over at Haymarket every weekend.
Theres a rumour going around
Theres a rumour going around that these banana boxes are only being used because of an even bigger shortage of pizza boxes.