First Week!

So as you all know, I accepted an intern position at the Georgia Aquarium, working with the Beluga Whales and Harbor Seals. You also know that I am in LOVE with Belugas and couldn't be more excited to be working with them, so I've put together this blog to track my time here in Atlanta...

 

So I just finished my first week of interning and all I can say is that the Georgia Aquarium is amazing! The exhibits are so big and beautiful! Especially the Whale Shark tank! But anyways, working up on deck with the Belugas and Seals is awesome! I haven't gotten to do much with them yet because I just started and still have much to learn. Basically my day goes as this: Come in, put up dry dive gear, prep food for the first feed/training session (most every time they feed is a training session), watch training session or clean the deck or get water samples from beluga tank, penguin tank, Asian small clawed otter tank, sea otter tank and holding tanks, then clean the buckets from the feed/training session, clean up anything on the task list, prep food for the second feed, watch session, clean buckets, then we have a department meeting with penguin, sea otter, and ASCO (Asian small clawed otter) and talk about what has gone on that morning with animals or any problems, then prep food for the third feed which is a Beluga and Friends Interaction Program where guests have paid to do a program with the Belugas for 30 mins, its a cute little session where they get in the water, meet the belugas up close and personal and get to feed them, pet them, and do some behaviors, if no one has signed up for it, then other interns and I get in for a mock program or they do a session and one intern gets to watch while the other cleans, then we wash buckets from that session and then its lunch time, from 12-1. After lunch we prep food for the fourth feed, watch the session or clean and then clean buckets after session, then we prep food for the last feed which is another Beluga and Friends Program, so the intern that watched the session the first time, now cleans and the other intern gets to watch, then we clean buckets, clean up the "kitchen area" and close out for the day. It sounds pretty uneventful and a lot of cleaning (which it is) but being able to watch and be apart of the training sessions is amazing and more than I can ask for. I am excited for what the aquarium has to hold and I am looking forward to being able to do more with the whales and seals.