Miami Seaquarium Internship

 A part of myself longs to go back to my passion: marine mammals. Marine mammal training to be exact. I don't want to say I gave up on this passion, just took a long detour. Now it's 2013, and I'm wondering what the h*ll I've been waiting for.

I took the plunge fins first, back in 2007...

I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into, but all I knew was this was going to be it!  I was going to do a paid internship at the Miami Seaqaurium, and then hopefully get a job there. I was 22 years old, and had a little under a grand to my name to move from the northeast to southern Florida. My boyfriend loaned me $500 dollars for my first month's rent. I drove down to Florida with a few things in the back of my 2000 GT eclipse (which I no longer own). I thought it was a pretty sweet ride, until it died on me halfway to Miami. That's a different story. See picture below.

I made the long drive down, leaving behind the love of my life for three months. It was bittersweet, but a part of me was excited to be embarking on a new adventure! It took me two days to complete the drive by myself, but I had finally made it to my small little apartment (studio to be exact). I shared this studio with my roommate, who also was a fellow intern. Life was pretty awesome! 

I started my internship with orientation with five other aspiring marine mammal trainers. We were all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to get our asses handed to us. Not only was this internship difficult to get accepted into, it was pretty grueling physically and mentally. I remember the experience like it was yesterday. We were all handed schedules, that varied from different areas: seal lion, whale, DH (Dolphin Harbor), or top deck. This schedule also included fish house, and fish prep everyday for the entire internship. I hardly ever had to do whale fish prep, which I was glad because I was a wuss at cutting Toki's salmon into bite sized chunks to feed to an orca. I mostly did fish prep at top deck, and sea lion. My least favorite part of sorting the fish was getting finger pricked by sardines. I was required to have all fish sorted and put into respective stainless steel buckets before the first show of the day. Don't forget to weigh each bucket, and place ice on top of the fish before placing in fridge. Bad fish would be disposed at the end of the day in something called a "GUTS" bucket. That will be explained later.  Each animal had their own bucket(s), which was rationed out for the day. Vitamins would be stuffed into the gills of the fish right before being fed to the animal. I soon became a pro at fish prep, and had it down in under 15 minutes..although this could be inaccurate. I knew if  I did a good job, I may be able to earn some of the trainer's trust. 

10:00AM

Liz is at the Top Deck show. I quickly race around and get all the fish buckets ready, and place them on the "boat." Make sure all *vits are stuffed into the gills of the herring. Trainers arrive, ready to put on the show. After show, I'd get to help with H20's on some of the older dolphins requiring more water intake. Mostly veterinary care related treatments i.e. (eye drops, blood draws etc.) This was the fun part for me, all the cleaning and scrubbing was worth just that few minutes I'd be able to participate in on.

How could you not love that face. RIP April.

10:40AM

Clean all buckets from show, scrub scrub scrub. No fish scales allowed! Rinse everything down thoroughly, to be ready for the next show. At this time, I'd be relieved by a fellow intern to go on my next assigned task.

11:15AM

Scrruubbiinnng!

If you ever did an MSQ internship, then you know what a scrubber is, and how to use it. It was something very foreign to me at first, but I'll never forget it to this day! Hooking the damn thing up as a nightmare, and was really hard to maneuver around underwater. Think of a giant brillo pad propelled by high water pressure. Once you got that thing spinning underwater, it'd take you for a ride...literally!

I'd be in charge of scrubbing the sea lion show pool, until it was sparkling blue.. and not algae green anymore. After a few hours underwater via SCUBA, I'd work up an appetite.

12:00pm

Lunch time for Liz. Lunch would include a soda and pizza at a discounted price. Sometimes I'd get a sandwich of choice, or steal cheese sticks from a fellow intern. Very healthy diet, but you wouldn't believe it if I told you I actually LOST weight over the internship. I mean, I lost at least 15-20 pounds! 

1pm

Sea lion feeder pool

Ahh the sea lion feeder pool! Here I would either sit and tell guests to keep hands and legs out of the enclosure, or yell at the occasional trash thrower. You don't even know how many times I'd have to get the net, and grab food or paper out of the water. People never learn.

1:15pm

It's so hot outside, I need water. Run inside sea lion stadium to grab water from the cooler. Run back outside to check for trash throwers. 

2-4pm

Read a script at sea lion feeder pool, during one of the timed sea lion feedings. Try not to fumble my words, and sound like I have no idea what I'm doing..but it's ok since half the people don't understand English anyway! Recite script to self: "Sea lions have ear flaps, where as seals do not." 

5-6pm

"Guts" time!

"Guts" is a loose term we would refer to for all fish not deemed restaurant quality. Any scale missing, bruising, abrasions would be thrown into the guts bucket.

Moving on...

Collect all guts from all locations (Sea lion, Top deck, and Whale). Make sure the one bike is available, as this is what is used to transport said guts to Biscayne Bay. Grab bike, and make rounds to all areas. Now you can only fit about two full gut buckets on the bike at a time. If they are really full, it makes peddling through the park even harder. I had a few close calls where I fell off the bike or got stuck in the pouring rain storms. Oh did I mention the pelicans?

Pelicans!?

Oh yes, those prehistoric creatures have on thing on their mind. Killing you to get to the guts bucket! They would see me coming along, and flock together to gang up on me. I have to say it was pretty comical, and I'd laugh out loud. I'd sometimes be sly and have a fish ready in hand to combat the creatures. It would be enough time to distract them, so I could pass them. The guts were then dumped into the bay, where all kinds would flock and relish over the rotten goods. 

I kind of miss those pelicans. They would look at you with their beady little eyes, and I actually started to like them..even if they wanted to kill me for my guts. No pun intended. 

I could write a whole lot more, and probably will. If I went into every single detail, I'd never stop writing! Hah! 

Conclusion to my ramblings:

Going against all odds, this internship was the best thing I could have done. I wouldn't be the same. I took away some great memories, and friends...even though I may not see them or talk to them every day. Financial obligations unfortunately led to me leaving Miami, and moving back to New England. I often wonder..what if? What if I stayed, and took that swim test? That is for another day, and another story. 

*Vitamins: A multi vitamin given to all sea mammals