Dave Allen, Delaware Expedition

When asked if I wanted to go to Delaware to assist with the Aquarium's cownose ray collecting trip on short notice I immediately said yes. I had never been to Delaware nor had it ever crossed my mind to go there (sorry Delawareans) so this would likely be my only opportunity to see The First State.


My view for the next ten hours. Little did I know that getting to Delaware would take nearly ten hours and take me through six states!

On Monday morning I met up with aquarists Brian Nelson and Jackie Anderson on the Aquarium plaza. Our mission was to drive to Lewes, Delaware and transport fifteen cownose rays back to Boston. The rays had been caught earlier in the week (read Megan's blog about ray collecting here) but there had been too many to take back in one trip. Our secondary mission was to also bring back aquarist Chris Payne who had stayed in Lewes to tend to the rays.


Chris made a lot of friends during his time in Lewes, like this diamondback terrapin.

I had heard that it was going to be easier to transport fifteen venomous fishes across six states and safely back to the Aquarium than to get Chris back to Boston. After spending the better part of the week in a sunny beach town, he had likely "gone native."


Though empty in this picture, the back of the Aquarium's transport truck would be filled with fifteen cownose rays and two humans for the long ride back to Boston the next day.

The holding tank can hold as much as 660 gallons of water and the back of the truck has all the life support systems needed to transport marine animals over long distances, including a sand filter and tanks of oxygen. This truck has even transported goliath groupers for our Blue Hole exhibit all the way from Marathon, Florida back to Boston.

We got into Lewes, Delaware late tonight. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get to see some more of the area and a peek at our new cownose rays.

-Dave