Quite A Salty Workplace

Romper-Stomping!

What an adjustment. I had a day to sorta settle in and then it was off to orientation the next day and then - real job (minus the paycheck) from there on out.  I work a 40 hour week and I'm running around all day. My hands are in saltwater more than they are out, and I'm just covered in it by the end of the day. For those who know me, this is fitting. It's a super active job and I am learning so much. I think my biggest hurdle is that I have three different people teaching me the same thing and they all have their certain way of doing it. But really the method doesn't matter so much as that it gets done, so I am sort of making a patchwork of all the ways to do stuff and patching it all together to get my routine down. I've made a few mistakes, but who doesn't? All the aquarists and the supervisor have been really cool about it, and I'm learning from them, which definitely good. 

The best way to describe what I do here is to imagine taking care of a home aquarium. You know all of the fish in there, you feed them, clean the tanks, keep tabs on how they're behaving, if they're sick you take care of them, if one fish is bullying another you separate them. Well its like that only way bigger, with a lot more tanks, and a lot more fish and invertebrates. What I don't think I really knew about aquariums before this is that there are a huge amount of critters that aren't on display, we have 7 octopus in total and only 2 of them are on exhibit right now. There are countless tanks behind the scenes and more critters than I know what to do with. We all work as a team to keep the whole place working. There is so much to do every day, and we never get the whole list done in one day, but because the smart people who really run the place have it all figured out it is okay is we dont get it done all at once. Things stay stable, and we work through any issues that come up. These people really know the place, they know the plumbing and the water and the behaviors of all the fish. Their job is a hard one and they do it well. I am learning so much and am slowly gaining trust.

As you can imagine I am already behind on my photo a day attempt but here they are:

19.6.2012

20.6.2012

21.6.2012

22.6.2012

23.6.2012

24.6.2012

25.6.2012

26.6.2012

Extra

Extra

 Well there it is. I'll do some more adventuring and get back to you!

PS. As an update the baby beluga is doing well, it is sort of bottle feeding, but he is a very messy eater. (yep that's Jeff Corwin)

Sunset at 11:30? Okay.

I've made it! I arrived in Anchorage yesterday without having checked my email in a few days so honestly I had no idea what was going on with the people at the Sealife center, the plan was to take the bus to Seward stay in a hostel for one night until my internship started then show up today at the center and ask where to go. Well lucky thing I arrived when I did because there was another girl waiting for the same bus and I asked her why she was headed to Seward and as it turns out she is an intern as well, my housemate no less! She was canceling her bus reservation and hitching a ride with the big boss at the center who happened to be in anchorage that day, so I made a few calls and tagged along too. Sweet deal! So not only did I get a free ride to Seward, but I met my roommates and got to explore Anchorage for a few hours. We started the drive at 8pm which looked like noon and felt like 9pm. Yeah my body has no idea what time it is...The drive took us much longer than it should have due to all of the road construction, as we were chugging along I couldn't figure out why I was so tired, but then I realized that thats because it was night time - it only looked like 3 in the afternoon. This really shows you how much we take subliminal cues from the light. So sunset was at 11:30pm and even then it really only got dusky for a few hours and then started to get light again. The Seward highway is beautiful, its as if the mountains decided one day to go for a swim and got stuck once they were up to their knees. 

Time Stamp: 10:00pm 6.18.2012

The big talk around here is the baby beluga. There was a stranding at the far end of the Aleutian chain and the center flew a guy out to go check it out, and he came back with a live baby beluga!! This is BIG news, belugas are rare in the wild and even more rare in captivity, and we have a cetaceans researcher who is trying to develop a better way to track belugas and find out more about them so if the center can step up to the challenge of keeping this poor stranded baby alive there is a lot that we can learn, and hopefully we can save this poor little dude. Hopefully I'll be able to see it since I'm more or less a behind the scenes worker.

Orientation starts tomorrow, and by then hopefully I'll know what I will really be doing, and I get to meet the people I'll be working with. Wish me luck this is going to be an exciting three months!

The mud flats can be dangerous, people get stuck and the tide comes in fast...
Extra Goodie