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My last day the the New England Aquarium was spent working with the rescued sea turtles at the rehab center in Quincy. A discrete industrial building, that looks nothing like it would house animals, is filled with quarantined animals, the sharks and rays that had been removed days before and the rescued turtles. When I had arrived there were only 6 turtles left from the over 200 that had been rescued. Many are rescued from being cold stunned or getting stuck in the arm of Cape Cod trying to migrate. They were divided into four tanks. Each gets regular check ups and is fed a certain diet, yet another example of how caring and individualized the aquarium is. While I was there I watched as turtles got check ups, weighing them, checking their vitals and looking at their shell making sure it was all healthy and didn’t have dents or scratches. After taking care of the turtles we headed down the wharf to get a few live crabs from the trap to give to the turtles as something of enrichment and to keep them on a healthy diet. The turtles can be pretty picky eaters and would just pass by the crab while other would lunge at it.  

While I was at the rehab center I got the chance to watch a necropsy of a year old seal that had washed ashore. When I got into the room there were four or five people standing around the body that had been cut open ready to be dissected. I watched as each organ was carefully removed and samples taken and photos of anything abnormal. It was fascinating to see the body be taken apart and all the little parts that help the seal to function. For a while the head was lying on the table next to me as the heart and lungs were taken out and placed next to it. It was gruesome to watch but oddly interesting as well. The final diagnosis was that the seal likely died due to complication from emphysema of the lungs.

The week I spent at the New England Aquarium was awesome, I learned a lot and it was fantastic to see the inner workings of the aquarium I had been to so many time before. Thanks to Dan Dolan for a great week.

I spent my next day working with the team from marine mammals, who care for and train the harbor seals and fur seals. I first worked in the kitchen divvying up fish for each of the fur seals. Then the team and I headed over to the harbor seals to do training with them and feeding. I watched as they performed tricks like opening their mouth, jumping, rolling around, waving, and presenting their flippers. Theses skills are important not just for the audience to watch for enjoyment but for when the seals are in need of medical care or are getting a check up. It was lots of fun to see the seals playing around and having so much fun. Later in the day I got to do some enrichment with them throwing toys at them and balls of fish in ice. We also sprayed them with a hose and watched them play around having lots of fun. It was great to work with the seals and see how much work goes into training and getting to know each animal on a personal level.

I spent my next day working with Charlie Innis the director of animal health for the entire aquarium. Right when I arrived at the aquarium I headed up to the top of the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) where a team of divers were removing the bonnet heads sharks to be sent to the rehab center in Quincy. The tank was going to be treated for Crypto by lowering the salinity of the tank which the elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) wouldn’t be able to handle. The sharks were caught then rushed down to a waiting truck that carted them to Quincy. After the bonnet heads were safely on their way Charlie showed me around the aquarium pointing out all the animals that were being treated for something or he had treated them and they were healthy and on exhibit. After that we headed down to treat a soldier fish for a eye problem giving it the last treatment of eye drops. It was astonishing to see a fish getting eye drops and how much Charlie and the Aquarium care about every single animal. After taking care of the fish we headed back up to the top of the GOT and removed the cownose rays while everyone watched the procedure. The divers caught them and transported them down the elevator and out to the truck just like the bonnet heads.

Charlie explained to me that this was a pretty relaxed day which was just astonishing. After lunch I headed to watch a presentation about southern right whales populations and the threats they face. It was interesting to hear the factors such as birds scratching the backs of the whales that would hurt their population. We then went to a presentation by one of Charlie’s team about a project he had worked on studying a mass pilot whale beaching killing over a hundred individuals and their health. My day spent with the health team was really amazing just watching all of the small everyday tasks and bigger unexpected problems that they face.

The next department I worked in was the cold water marine department, which houses marine life from Eastport ME, the West Coast, and of course the octopuses. My morning started by helping clean sand for tanks for incoming fish and invertebrates from a recent collecting trip to Eastport. When I wasn’t washing sand I would spend my time playing with the two octopuses. Their names are Freya and The Professor, both have very different personalities. The Professor is a little younger and smaller, while Freya is larger and is right up with the public, The Professor sits behind Freya in another tank. Playing with the both of them it’s hard to not think that they are intelligent creatures. They investigated me by pulling my arms into the tank, I made sure they wouldn’t pull my arms too far, the people watching would be pretty freaked out to see an octopus pulling a human arm into its tank. It was amazing to feel each of the suckers working independently pulling and tasting at different strengths while the octopus changes color and texture. At one point Freya began to pull my hand towards her beak and that would really hurt so I pulled my hand back feeling the full muscular power of octopus. Working with Freya and The Professor was a mesmerizing experience that really made me see them on a different otherworldly level, it was truly amazing.

 

 

The next day at the aquarium I worked with the penguins. The New England Aquarium has three species; african, rockhopper and little blue. Each is very different and has distinct personalities. I worked first with the little blues, the smallest species of penguin. They were molting their feathers so I cleaned up the feathers from the water and washed off the rocks they sat on. As they all huddled together in a tight clump I brushed of all of the fish they had digested or regurgitated. It smelled pretty bad at times. After lunch I worked with the rockhopper penguins who were much more aggressive and hungry. I fed them some fish sticking it in their faces till they ate it. Each penguin is monitored, making sure every single one gets the right amount of food and that no one is falling behind. Some were very eager to eat and would peck at my fingers and swim around me bumping into my back, others would sit far away from me and I would have to walk up to them and coax them to eat. After feeding them I went around cleaning the bottom of the enclosure scrubbing away algae and any food scraps. At one point I was walking around the rock when one sitting on a rock crapped on me. A family saw it happen and burst out laughing, it was a lot more fun for them than me, needless to say I thoroughly washed out my wetsuit.

I arrived at the New England Aquarium bright and early to meet Dan Dolan, friend of the Sea Rovers and long time aquarium volunteer and diver in the GOT (Giant Ocean Tank). Once I met Dan he brought me up to the dive locker and kitchen where I dropped off my stuff and got to work preparing fish food. I pulled apart squids, debeaking and depending them. I then got some lettuce ready for Myrtle the green sea turtle. Myrtle weighs in at 540 lbs, and is the oldest and one of the most iconic animals at the aquarium. The rest of the morning I fed the needle fish pieces of shrimp and fish, and Myrtle the lettuce I had prepared.

Then I headed back into the dive locker and got geared up to do a dive in the tank. A few of my friends got to come and see me as I went into the tank and took pictures with me. I got to pat a green moray, and rub Myrtle’s back. I swam around looking at the many fish species from schools of grunts to the hog fish and french angels. My personal favorite was the black drum fish. A kind of ugly looking brown fish about three or four feet long that has short barbles under its chin. At one point a grouper came near it and I found out why it’s called a black drum. It started making this deep booming drumming noise scaring the grouper away. It was amazing to see inside the tank that I had walked around so many times before.

 

My last day at the National Aquarium was spent looking around at the exhibits that I didn’t get to see the rest of the week. I couldn’t dive because I was flying home later that afternoon. I looked around at the Rainforest and Australian galleries and their complex tanks. The diversity of life at the National aquarium amazes me. There is something from every part of the globe here for everyone to see. I had an amazing week and did five awesome dives, thanks to Holly, Billy and Wally for hosting me!

On my fourth day at the Aquarium we went to the Animal Care and Rescue Center (ACRC). There Holly and her team did training in one of the pools with divers figuring out best methods to save an unconscious diver and help if need be. Holly’s team of Josh, Jackie and Taylor Grace all helped to think of emergency scenarios and how they could be avoided and remedied. Holly and Jackie were the divers along with one of the staff from the ACRC who were in the water while Josh and Taylor and Ashleigh Clews, the director of the ACRC, watched and performed surface emergency scenarios. Obstacles that faced the team were poor design of the tank, there were cat walks that prohibited divers to go too far around without the tender not being able to pull them back. The tank is great for sharks and other fish but not so much for divers.

Once the training was done and best rescue procedures were thought of I went to work with some of the team with the ACRC, including Meredith Myers. She helped me prepare food for some of the animals housed on exhibit or in holding, these included lungfish, a cowfish, a map puffer named Duncan and many turtles. I went around to the tanks feeding some of the turtles throwing allotted amounts of lettuce into the tanks. One of my favorite turtles is a pig nosed turtle named Funzo, this species is the only freshwater turtle with fins.

Funzo was a charismatic fella who was very curious of what was going on and who you were. He is target feed by touching a colored wheel and give a piece of food.  My time in the ACRC was really cool, I got to see a lot of the amazing behind the scenes of how the aquarium runs it quarantine and deals with sick animals.

This morning Simon the stingray was overdue for a spine clipping. In the morning I worked with Katie, Emily, Jennie Janson, the assistant curator of Blue Wonders and a diver, and Josh Foronda one of Holly’s dive team. Katie and Jennie went down to catch Simon while Josh tended the divers (made sure nothing happened to them while diving), and Emily helped to cut Simon’s spine and measure and weigh him. After a few failed attempts to catch him he was finally on the platform being weighed and measured, his spine was cut so that he didn’t injure any of the many divers that come through the tank every day. Cutting a spine of a ray is pretty much like a fingernail, it grows back soon after. Simon was healthy and thrown back soon after. I of course asked if I could keep the spine since it’s such a cool souvenir!

Next I worked with Holly and her team in Shark Alley. Shark Ally is a 250,000 gallon exhibit with 16 individuals across 7 species, and the tank is only 9 ft deep. While Holly and Jackie Cooper, another member of Holly’s team did some training with Randy, a dummy (I don’t mean he was stupid he’s actually a mannequin), Jennie fixed up some of the base of Shark Alley, and I sat along the bottom collecting teeth. The part of the tank we were working in was blocked off so that the sand tigers, saw sharks and rays wouldn’t disturb us and we wouldn’t disturb them. Over the hour long dive I collected 69 teeth, not bad for my first time in the tank.

After lunch I got a chance to dive with Jackie in Black Tip Reef, I’m the first intern who has gotten to dive in this exhibit and it was amazing! The sharks are swimming all around you, fish are going crazy it’s a hectic place. The tank itself holds 270,000 gallons, and has 650-700 individuals across 80 species. The tanks ranges from 18-7ft deep, but it is mostly all shallow so shallow that my dive computer only registered 18 minutes over an hour long dive. Some of the highlights from the tank are the two zebra sharks. The female is named Zoey and the male is Zeke. Zoey is partially blind and she swam right into me hitting me in the mask, it was so cool to be hit by such a big shark! The same thing happened with Calypso the green sea turtle. She is missing one fin because she was cold stunned and that’s why she is at the aquarium. I was in the deeper end of the tank in front of an underwater viewing window when Calypso come by almost smacking me in the head with the bottom of her shell. Unlike Zoey she has no excuse. I quickly breathed out all the air from my lungs and descended a few feet as I saw camera flashes going off behind me and bubble spilling around Calypso. She kept on swimming and I managed to get off one great shot of her coming at me. It was truly an amazing dive.

My morning started by getting food ready for the aquarium’s many animals. I cut up a crab, and stuffed squid and bait fish with vitamin pills for the sharks and rays in Black Tip Reef. I worked with Emily Anderson and Katie Diciccio, divers and aquarists who help run the Atlantic Coral Reef and Black Tip Reef. We headed down to feed the large whiptail rays and the nine black tips in the newest exhibit Black Tip Reef. To feed the rays we used a long pole and forced it in front of their face then they would sit up on it and chew the food on the end. You could feel them chewing and almost hear a crunching sound coming up the pole. After the four rays were all feed we moved on to the sharks. The exhibit has two zebra sharks, nine black tips, and a couple wobbegongs. We fed the black tips by hanging a target just above the water as sort of a training measure they would touch or go around the red buoy and be fed. Instead of the target feeding of the rays this was a broadcast feeding of all the black tips at once. It was at times a mass frenzy throwing squid and fish parts near their faces.

After feeding the sharks I went over to the jellies department, where I met Annie Miller, one of the aquarists for the jellies. She explained the ins and outs of how to keep such delicate creatures alive in captivity with certain amounts of current and food. One of the major things that the jellies department tries to avoid is “jelly jams”, this is when the current is to weak or strong and the jellies begin to get stuck in the filtration system and can clog the pipes and kill the whole tank if not taken care of. After being introduced to all the jellies on exhibit I went over to the jelly culture lab where the team cultures the jellies and raises them to be put on exhibit. The lab raises most of the jellies that go to exhibit and any that they have and don’t need can be shipped to other aquariums or be feed to other jellies. Matt Wade is one of the directors of the jellies culture lab and is currently working on raising box jellies. Because they are level one venomous animals they are taken very seriously, though they are only a few centimeters now they could grow very big and be extremely dangerous. Matt showed me some of the jellies under the microscope looking at the different life stages and how complex they are. For being considered so simple and well brain less they are actually very complex.

After lunch I headed around with a couple of the gallery aquarists. I first worked with Roxie Garibay who runs the live corals gallery. She went through the care and maintenance of these tanks and how important it is to keep track of the health of the corals. We fed a few of the fish and she showed me how they grow corals behind the scenes. I next worked with Allen Kattyan who runs a few different galleries from the striped bass, to the shipwreck and kelp forest tanks. What amazed me most is that he dives in some of the tanks filled with pieces of fake shipwrecks and totally cramped. For Holly it’s a hard job to keep him safe in such a small enclosed area and if anything went wrong it wouldn’t be very good.

After working with the aquarists I headed to the dive locker for my third and final dive in the Atlantic Coral Reef. I again went in with the volunteers except today was the Tuesday A team. I photographed a lot of the same subjects refining my shots from the other day. I got some good shots of Simon the sting ray and of the super male hogfish in the tank that is Holly’s favorite fish.