For my third day, I got to see a much different perspective of working at the aquarium! To start the day I got to watch three of the assistant dive safety officers all work together to clean the Blacktip Reef using a pressure washer. It’s was super impressive to see how well the entire team functions, doing a mix of training each other as well as guaranteeing each other’s safety while one of them is in the water! The pressure washer provides a much deeper clean than sending in divers with a brush, much like using a water pick when brushing your teeth. However, it has to be done in the morning before any viewers show up since it can make the water slightly cloudy.
Once the tank was clean for the day, I got to spend some time with the aquarium’s registrar. The Registrar is responsible for record keeping throughout most of the aquarium’s facilities, such as animal care, transport, cleaning, and so much more. We got to spend some time organizing a ton of old files from some of the aquarium’s first years of operation, and it was interesting to see how resourceful some of the first veterinarians and aquarists were when finding ways of treating these animals, when minimal research had been done. After we organized a ton of files, they were put aside to eventually be digitized and scanned into the aquariums library.
The next part of my day was one of the most unique. I got to take a tour through the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (or IMET). The IMET building works in conjunction with the National Aquarium as a center for research and development, and in the aquariums case, the home of their jellyfish lab! At this lab, the majority of the Aquariums exhibited jellyfish are born and raised. While we walked around the lab and the technician explained some of the minutiae that goes into jellyfish care, it was clear that it took a ton of time and attention to detail to make sure they had the right amount of food, space and even the right shaped habitat! We finished up our tour around the lab, and then we headed back to the main exhibits to dive!
Our dive today was quite special, the aquarium was hosting researchers from the University of Maryland as they worked on a project relating to dive physiology. While I was not personally involved in the study, it was super fun to see how the process worked, and I even got to take some more photos during the dive!
Thank you again to Backscatter for providing such a great setup to use!
After a fun day at the aquarium, Holly and her husband were kind enough to take me around Baltimore and show me some of the city’s highlights like Camden Yard!
