Best.Job.Ever

It is hard to believe that after all the hard work, resume/cover letter reviews, advisory arguments, classes, papers, phone calls, panic attacks, applications, interviews, apartment searching......its hard to believe that after all of that I am finally here. It is so amazing to say that I am a Beluga Whale Husbandry Intern at Mystic Aquarium, Institute for Exploration. I have wanted this more than anything for as long as I can remember. Is it fate that the first cetacean I ever saw in person was a beluga whale? Probably not, but its a cool thing to say. Anyway I am writing this blog in order to keep everyone updated. So many people want to know EVERYTHING and quite frankly I dont feel like calling everyone and having people give people false information. Soooooo where to begin?? Why not the beginning!!!!

So my first day was just a general orientation. No sexual harassment kids!!!! I then got the chance to go to the back-up area of the beluga and PI (pribolof islands) teams. It was there that I met some of the trainers including Lindsey who is my awesome mentor, and Alyssa who is the current intern. Lindsey allowed me to go on the beach while the whale were in session. It was amazing to watch the whales and trainers in action. I then decided to wander around the aquarium (although I had already done that the previous day, but you can never get too much of whales, sea lions, penguins, and fishies). Let me just say that Mystic Aquarium is awesome. The exhibits are incredible, the animals are content and healthy, and the people are phenomonal. I could spend all day everyday just walking around the aquarium and watching the goings on. Anyhoo, the next day was my first day. I met the trainers Kate, Kelly, Kim, Sasha, and Justin who are all amazing (actually I didnt meet everyone that day but that is just a list of all the trainers I met). I also met the volunteers Lila and Barret who are equally kick ass. It was really hectic because they were doing the last of an online live broadcast series. Lindsey was up in the studio hosting the broadcast so I followed Alyssa around that day. If anyone wants to watch the broadcast got to immersionlearning.org or mysticaquarium.org. I watched her, as well as other trainers do feedings with the whales. There are 3 whales: Kela, Naku, and Juno. Kela and Naku are both 28 year old females and Juno is the newest whale (he arrived in January) and is a 7 year old male. I will talk more about the individual whales once I know them better. While observing the sessions Alyssa let me do tongue rubs on Kela and Naku, the whales LOVE to have their tongue rubs and give the coolest vocalization during them and the feedings. During one of the sessions I had the awesome privilege of going into the lip. The lip is where guests can go waste deep into the water with the whales for interactions. It was sooooo amazing being in the water with one of the whales (Kela to be exact). Along with all the whale sessions I also learned maintenence routines (such as cleaning the beach and the weir). And cleaning/sorting fish. Each fish gets examined to make sure it is in perfect quality for the whales. It was a 10-hour day, but it definitely did not feel like it!!!

The other two days I have worked so far have basically been the same. I get to observe every feeding session (and both of the other days I got to go into the lip again!!!!!!!) which allows me to learn about the individual whales, how to handle them, bucket levels (more about that later), trainer communication, etc. I am becoming more comfortable with the cleaning routines and fish prep. I will soon get signed off on these so that I can go ahead and do all of these on my own. I also met more volunteers-Hilary and Bill, and they are of course amazing like everyone else there. The trainer Justin also took the time to show me all of the filtration apparatus. It is amazing to see all of the equipment and chemicals that are necessary to keep the aquarium going. He taught me how to re-fill the chemical soda ash into the system which helps the water filter and bicarb which is another chemical (ok so I dont remember exactly what everything does but its important and part of what I will be doing on a day to day basis). When I use these chemicals I have to wear gloves and a funny face mask so I dont burn my hands or fuck up my insides. Yesterday Lindsey let me feed the whales during the sessions. She would pass them off to me so I could toss some fish into their squishy mouths (they get a diet of caplin, squid, herring, and mackerel). It is so amazing that I got to feed whales on my third day. I also learned how to give them a visual bridge (pointing at them). A bridge is a secondary reinforcer that lets an animal know that they are doing a good job and reinforcement will be coming (this is what clicker training is-the clicker is the bridge). It allows a trainer to pin point the correct behavior as soon as it occurs which leads to a more successful training session. I did this every so often to get myself used to doing the bridge, I was basically reinforcing them for being attentive. On one of the sessions I got to do the end of session signal for Kela (waving my arm over the bucket). This tells the whale that the session is over and that there are no more fish. However, Kela and Naku usually stay for tongue rubs anyway:)

So as you can tell I am LOVING my internship. I hate having days off (like right now) and do not mind having a 530 wake-up call. I cannot wait to post more on my internship.

Happy reading!!!!!!!!!!