Hi everyone,
It's been FOREVER since I've posted an entry, but time is of the essence when you work 7 days a week! Since...er, July, I have been working on my last few classes and working in Key Largo at my internship. I'd like to focus on the latter, since I haven't had a chance to tell anyone what I actually do! I only have a month left, and boy has time flown! Thus far, my experience has been AMAZING. Then again, did you expect anything less when I get to play with dolphins all day? To be fair, it is a ginormous amount of work, and I finish each day physically exhausted, but feeling happy and productive. The staff at DolphinsPlus have truly made my time unforgettable: they are so good to me and make me feel part of a team. I like them just as much as the dolphins!
My internship has two phases, since I am learning animal care and training. I have just moved into the second part, so I will soon be learning some training aspects, for which I am excited. Thus far, my daily routine consists of preparation for feeding sessions. My tasks include prepping buckets and hydrations. Before feeds, we pull buckets out of our fridges for our 12 dolphins and 1 sea lion, then stuff fish with vitamins, and re-ice them before the trainers take them out. This is probably the grossest part of my job, but I'm used to it now, and kind of like it. Depending on if the dolphin is an adult, nursing mother, sick, etc., they all have a specific vitamin regimen that we apply. They're vitamins you can buy in any drugstore and include but are not limited to Vitamin C, Vitamin E, B100 complex, Calcium, Lutein, Probiotics, Multi-centrum silver, and B1 Vitamin. There are other meds given to the dolphins, but those are generally antibiotics or some other medication the trainers or vet must apply. Two days a week I am assigned to fish kitchen, where I help a trainer weigh out food for each dolphin (they receive 3 buckets a day). We feed them fatty herring, small fatty herring, lean herring, lake smelt, peruvian smelt, columbian river smelt, silver sides, capelin, and sardines. I also have to look for bycatch, fish that do not belong in these groups that are either bad for or could harm our dolphins. So let's just say I'm at the point where I don't mind sticking my hands in a bucket to be covered in fish slime :) I also have ridiculously buff arms from carrying buckets all day.
The other significant task I do is preparing hydrations. Dolphins normally get their fresh water from the fish they eat, but our fish we give them are restaurant-level frozen, so they lose a lot of the water that we must replenish. One way is to give them jello, which I also am in charge of making, and another is to have the dolphins voluntarily accept a tube down their throats, through which we pour about 2L of filtered water. I clean these tubes and lubricate them, as well as prepare the water at the correct temperature (between 80 and 90 degrees), and then assist the trainer in actually giving the animal water. The dolphins usually get at least 2 hydrations a day, so I just constantly clean and prepare tubes. I could probably do it with my eyes closed.
Other tasks we do include cleaning. EVERYTHING. We clean our fridges once a day. We clean the kitchen twice a day. Not just the sinks. The walls. The floor. EVERYTHING. Our place is cleaner than most restaurant kitchens, without a doubt. I help set up the docks the trainers sit on-toyboxes, mats, all kinds of stuff. I check the facility to make sure nothing is in the water to harm our dolphins. I clean vests and wetsuits our guests and staff wear. I scrub docks, cleaning off algae. I do laundry. I also set up beachings. This occurs on two large motorized lifts that we move up and down. We have the dolphins essentially practice beaching themselves, so that we can transport them with little stress. I also am used to help hold a dolphin in place or push her back in the water. One day I single-handedly saved our big girl Squirt from falling off the mat. I was forever known later as the 73-lb girl that saved the 400-lb dolphin. Lots of excitement goes on at DolphinsPlus.
Another aspect of our job is educational briefings. I give guests information on our facility, our dolphins, dolphin anatomy, research, conservation, and behaviors that they will do. We have three types of swims, so each talk is garnered toward different rules. I also am being educated while I'm here. Interns take 5 classes and have to pass various quizzes. How it works is if you show responsibility and capibility, you get to learn more and move on to the next stage. As I said, soon I will learn about trainer signals, behavior, etc. I have the ultimate respect for trainers. Most people don't notice, but trainers are thinking and making choices all the time, even when it appears they're just sitting still. Everything they do conveys information to the dolphins, so it's very important how they ask for and reinforce behaviors. Trainers constantly make notes on every animal, and set criteria to learn. Their job is not entertainment. It's psychology, research, and conservation. They are the ultimate multi-taskers.
During sessions I get to rest and take notes. Every trainer is different, and something different happens every session depending on the guests, the dolphins, etc. And I can't complain about soaking up some sun, smelling the seawater, and enjoying the breeze through the palm trees. I've participated in our structured swim already multiple times, and have done the natural swim (observational) twice. I am wet at some point everyday, and smell like fish and have an unidentifiable stain on my clothes, as well as covered in fish scales, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) Even though I have an established routine, I never know what I'll get to do each day. One day, I'm in the water at 8:30 in the morning doing a natural. Another day, I'm waist-deep getting our pregnant female used to a certain area of the pool so that we can help her when she goes into labor. Sometimes I'm holding a dolphin still when I trainer has to apply eye drops or honey to heal injuries. The other day, I stood in as a vet for the sea lion, practicing a 'jugular stick', i.e., getting her used to the feeling of a needle on her throat to take a blood sample. So, I'm constantly learning, and having fun too!
I promise I will put up pictures soon. I have to get them approved to put them online. DolphinsPlus really feels like home. It's also awesome to really get to learn the dolphins' personalities and tell them apart. I love coming in in the mornings and talking to them. They really feel like family. On one side of our lagoon, we have 7 dolphins: 3 mom-calf pairs, and one juvenile male. Dinghy is our matriarch and oldest/largest dolphin. She's the boss. She's 35 years old, and has a 1 year old calf, BB. We also call her meatball, cause she's so round. There is also Sarah, in her late 20s. Sarah is a diva and constantly watches over everyone. Her 4 year old Grace, is a devil-child. She's very curious, but she tries to scare the hell out of me when I'm scrubbing docks, and she pokes me when I set up beachings. Despite her cuteness, I think she's kind of evil. Then there's Jess, who is also in her late 20s. She's mostly blind, from some scar tissue over her eyes. She has a 2 year old, Zoe, who's beginning to follow in Grace's footsteps and be mischevious. Fiji, the male, is my favorite on this side. He's very chill. He likes to swim upside down and whistle contantly. If he were human, I think he'd be some totally-out-of-it surfer dude who could play the steel drums and wear dreads. On the 'south side' of the lagoon is another family unit. We have mama Squirt and papa Bob, with 2 children: 4-year-old Lotus, who is my favorite on that side-she does an amazing back flip- and Tashi, a 3-month old boy who is FREAKING ADORABLE. Bella, our 12-year-old teenager is also on that side. She's a fast learner and our 'pretty girl'; she's very pink. Also on that side is Wono, our 22 year old sea lion, who secretly thinks she's a dolphin, and is a great philosopher of life. Our dolphins are smart as whips, and hilarious at the same time. I think the trainers sometimes feel like therapists. Anyways, there's never a dull moment :)
I will update when I'm nearly finished next month, and like I said put up some pictures. I don't want to lose an opportunity to make you all jealous!
It's been FOREVER since I've posted an entry, but time is of the essence when you work 7 days a week! Since...er, July, I have been working on my last few classes and working in Key Largo at my internship. I'd like to focus on the latter, since I haven't had a chance to tell anyone what I actually do! I only have a month left, and boy has time flown! Thus far, my experience has been AMAZING. Then again, did you expect anything less when I get to play with dolphins all day? To be fair, it is a ginormous amount of work, and I finish each day physically exhausted, but feeling happy and productive. The staff at DolphinsPlus have truly made my time unforgettable: they are so good to me and make me feel part of a team. I like them just as much as the dolphins!
My internship has two phases, since I am learning animal care and training. I have just moved into the second part, so I will soon be learning some training aspects, for which I am excited. Thus far, my daily routine consists of preparation for feeding sessions. My tasks include prepping buckets and hydrations. Before feeds, we pull buckets out of our fridges for our 12 dolphins and 1 sea lion, then stuff fish with vitamins, and re-ice them before the trainers take them out. This is probably the grossest part of my job, but I'm used to it now, and kind of like it. Depending on if the dolphin is an adult, nursing mother, sick, etc., they all have a specific vitamin regimen that we apply. They're vitamins you can buy in any drugstore and include but are not limited to Vitamin C, Vitamin E, B100 complex, Calcium, Lutein, Probiotics, Multi-centrum silver, and B1 Vitamin. There are other meds given to the dolphins, but those are generally antibiotics or some other medication the trainers or vet must apply. Two days a week I am assigned to fish kitchen, where I help a trainer weigh out food for each dolphin (they receive 3 buckets a day). We feed them fatty herring, small fatty herring, lean herring, lake smelt, peruvian smelt, columbian river smelt, silver sides, capelin, and sardines. I also have to look for bycatch, fish that do not belong in these groups that are either bad for or could harm our dolphins. So let's just say I'm at the point where I don't mind sticking my hands in a bucket to be covered in fish slime :) I also have ridiculously buff arms from carrying buckets all day.
The other significant task I do is preparing hydrations. Dolphins normally get their fresh water from the fish they eat, but our fish we give them are restaurant-level frozen, so they lose a lot of the water that we must replenish. One way is to give them jello, which I also am in charge of making, and another is to have the dolphins voluntarily accept a tube down their throats, through which we pour about 2L of filtered water. I clean these tubes and lubricate them, as well as prepare the water at the correct temperature (between 80 and 90 degrees), and then assist the trainer in actually giving the animal water. The dolphins usually get at least 2 hydrations a day, so I just constantly clean and prepare tubes. I could probably do it with my eyes closed.
Other tasks we do include cleaning. EVERYTHING. We clean our fridges once a day. We clean the kitchen twice a day. Not just the sinks. The walls. The floor. EVERYTHING. Our place is cleaner than most restaurant kitchens, without a doubt. I help set up the docks the trainers sit on-toyboxes, mats, all kinds of stuff. I check the facility to make sure nothing is in the water to harm our dolphins. I clean vests and wetsuits our guests and staff wear. I scrub docks, cleaning off algae. I do laundry. I also set up beachings. This occurs on two large motorized lifts that we move up and down. We have the dolphins essentially practice beaching themselves, so that we can transport them with little stress. I also am used to help hold a dolphin in place or push her back in the water. One day I single-handedly saved our big girl Squirt from falling off the mat. I was forever known later as the 73-lb girl that saved the 400-lb dolphin. Lots of excitement goes on at DolphinsPlus.
Another aspect of our job is educational briefings. I give guests information on our facility, our dolphins, dolphin anatomy, research, conservation, and behaviors that they will do. We have three types of swims, so each talk is garnered toward different rules. I also am being educated while I'm here. Interns take 5 classes and have to pass various quizzes. How it works is if you show responsibility and capibility, you get to learn more and move on to the next stage. As I said, soon I will learn about trainer signals, behavior, etc. I have the ultimate respect for trainers. Most people don't notice, but trainers are thinking and making choices all the time, even when it appears they're just sitting still. Everything they do conveys information to the dolphins, so it's very important how they ask for and reinforce behaviors. Trainers constantly make notes on every animal, and set criteria to learn. Their job is not entertainment. It's psychology, research, and conservation. They are the ultimate multi-taskers.
During sessions I get to rest and take notes. Every trainer is different, and something different happens every session depending on the guests, the dolphins, etc. And I can't complain about soaking up some sun, smelling the seawater, and enjoying the breeze through the palm trees. I've participated in our structured swim already multiple times, and have done the natural swim (observational) twice. I am wet at some point everyday, and smell like fish and have an unidentifiable stain on my clothes, as well as covered in fish scales, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) Even though I have an established routine, I never know what I'll get to do each day. One day, I'm in the water at 8:30 in the morning doing a natural. Another day, I'm waist-deep getting our pregnant female used to a certain area of the pool so that we can help her when she goes into labor. Sometimes I'm holding a dolphin still when I trainer has to apply eye drops or honey to heal injuries. The other day, I stood in as a vet for the sea lion, practicing a 'jugular stick', i.e., getting her used to the feeling of a needle on her throat to take a blood sample. So, I'm constantly learning, and having fun too!
I promise I will put up pictures soon. I have to get them approved to put them online. DolphinsPlus really feels like home. It's also awesome to really get to learn the dolphins' personalities and tell them apart. I love coming in in the mornings and talking to them. They really feel like family. On one side of our lagoon, we have 7 dolphins: 3 mom-calf pairs, and one juvenile male. Dinghy is our matriarch and oldest/largest dolphin. She's the boss. She's 35 years old, and has a 1 year old calf, BB. We also call her meatball, cause she's so round. There is also Sarah, in her late 20s. Sarah is a diva and constantly watches over everyone. Her 4 year old Grace, is a devil-child. She's very curious, but she tries to scare the hell out of me when I'm scrubbing docks, and she pokes me when I set up beachings. Despite her cuteness, I think she's kind of evil. Then there's Jess, who is also in her late 20s. She's mostly blind, from some scar tissue over her eyes. She has a 2 year old, Zoe, who's beginning to follow in Grace's footsteps and be mischevious. Fiji, the male, is my favorite on this side. He's very chill. He likes to swim upside down and whistle contantly. If he were human, I think he'd be some totally-out-of-it surfer dude who could play the steel drums and wear dreads. On the 'south side' of the lagoon is another family unit. We have mama Squirt and papa Bob, with 2 children: 4-year-old Lotus, who is my favorite on that side-she does an amazing back flip- and Tashi, a 3-month old boy who is FREAKING ADORABLE. Bella, our 12-year-old teenager is also on that side. She's a fast learner and our 'pretty girl'; she's very pink. Also on that side is Wono, our 22 year old sea lion, who secretly thinks she's a dolphin, and is a great philosopher of life. Our dolphins are smart as whips, and hilarious at the same time. I think the trainers sometimes feel like therapists. Anyways, there's never a dull moment :)
I will update when I'm nearly finished next month, and like I said put up some pictures. I don't want to lose an opportunity to make you all jealous!
