JULY 21, 2010

Cape Canaveral, FL — A prime contractor at Florida's Kennedy Space Center known for fulfilling NASA's Medical and Environmental Support Contract (MESC) is now playing a key role in the relocation of sea turtles threatened by the Gulf oil spill. Innovative Health Applications, LLC (IHA) consists of over 200 highly trained doctors, nurses, scientists, technicians and environmental specialists. Their primary responsibility is to ensure the safety and health of KSC workers and the environment in which they operate. Now they are also tasked with providing and operating a secure incubation facility for late-term sea turtle nests rescued from the oil-fouled beaches of Alabama and northwest Florida.

The relocation and release work is part of the environmental endeavor by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, to help minimize the risk to this year's sea turtle hatchlings from impacts of the oil spill. IHA was asked by the USFWS and NOAA to support the effort based on the company's extensive experience working with the wildlife in and around the Kennedy Space Center.

Once the nests arrive at the space center, IHA is responsible for receiving and monitoring them in an incubation facility. They are cared for in a climate-controlled building and ultimately released into the Atlantic Ocean at various locations that IHA has determined to be the most conducive to hatchling release success. Up to 700 nests are involved in the relocation plan, which may take months to complete. Most of the nests are from loggerhead turtles, but nests from leatherback, green turtles, and Kemp's Ridleys, will be brought to the Kennedy hatchery.

IHA coordinated with multiple potential release sites along Florida's east central coast and gathered a team to provide a rapid response to this effort. Nests will be checked at least once each night for signs of impending emergence and when hatchlings emerge during darkness they'll be released immediately. The rescue mission's first relocated sea turtle nest was released in the Atlantic shortly after midnight on July 11, 2010. Since that time, 56 Kemp's Ridley hatchlings have been released on a dark and quiet beach inside the Kennedy Space Center and Canaveral National Seashore. This was considered very successful for a sea turtle nest, as 83% of the eggs survived to be released into the Atlantic Ocean. A total of 19 nests have arrived to date and are being released on a regular basis.

According to Jane Provancha, IHA's, Environmental Projects Manager/Ecologist, "In supporting the USFWS and NOAA with the incubation and release of the relocated sea turtles we recognize the importance of this rescue effort and we're glad to help."

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Key Contacts:
Cynthia Gross, President, IHA: 757-722-7575 / www.ihamedical.com
Jane A. Provancha, IHA, Environmental Projects Manager/Ecologist: 321-867-2434
Sandy MacPherson, USFWS National Sea Turtle Coordinator: 904-731-3328