The long-awaited mass update.

Okay here is a major major update. I'll do my best to make it flow, but bear with me if I jump all over the place.

I'll start with the internship. I am on the Beluga Whale/Sea Otter team. For those of you who don't know (which I hope you do) Beluga Whales are those really blubbery large white whales you find in the Arctic. Sea Otters are cute and fuzzy.

At the Vancouver Aquarium we have 3 female adult Belugas. The oldest is named Kavna ('Kav-nah'), and she is believed to be in her early to mid 40s. The next oldest is Aurora, and she is believed to be in her mid 20s. Aurora has a daughter named Qila ('Key-lah'), who is 16 years old. Kavna is the matriarch. It took me a long time to be able to tell them apart but now the differences between them are like night and day for me. For example, Kavna's melon is much rounder and larger than the other two and she is the whitest, Qila has grey patches around her eyes and behind her blowhole, and Aurora is fairly white, with grey patches around her eyes, and has a distinctive melon shape. Aurora and Kav each have notched dorsal ridges, while Qila's is smooth. Their personalities are so different as well. I picture Qila as the mature teenager, who is very curious and adventurous. She often lifts her head out of the water to look at you, and it's super cute. Aurora is very mellow and calm. Kavna is very calm as well, and seems very comfortable with her ways.

Kavna

Aurora

Qila

We also have 3 adult Sea Otters. We have 2 males and 1 female. Our males are named Milo and Elfin. Our female's name is Tanu. Milo was born at the Lisbon Aquarium in Portugal, and he is the oldest at 12 years. Elfin and Tanu were both found abandoned off the coast of Alaska and were rescued and rehabilitated at the Aquarium. Elfin is about 10 years old and Tanu is about 7 years old. Milo is the most blonde, followed by Elfin, and then Tanu. Sea Otters get more and more blonde as they age, so if you see an extremely blonde Sea Otter, chances are they're gettin' up there in years. One thing I love about otters is that they're very high energy, and they're almost always doing something. If they are sleeping, they dry off and get super fuzzy, and therefore are very cute.

Milo and Tanu- I don't have a picture of Elfin! :( (FYI this is called rafting- when sea otters hold on to each other or another object to keep themselves from moving while they're sleeping. Yes, it's very cute.)

So my responsibilities are numerous. First thing in the morning I come in and check on buckets. Each Beluga has a day bucket which is their allotted fish for the entire day. From that bucket we make session buckets for each feed throughout the day. They get fed herring, capelin, and squid. Herring is a fattier fish and has a higher calorie content. Capelin are considered the 'veggie fish' and have more nutrients. Squid is so they get the water or hydration they need. The otters get individual buckets made up for each session. They eat a TON of food. Sea otters eat about 1/4 of their body weight every day. (AKA if you weighed 100 lbs and wanted to eat like an otter, you'd have to eat 100 quarter pounders every day- a LOT of food.) They get clams, capelin, pollock, squid, and prawns. And each otter has preferences so we have to prepare their food for them. Because they chew their food they tend to be a bit more picky about what they eat. Otter prep probably takes up most of my kitchen time.

Keep in mind, all of the seafood that our animals get is restaurant quality, and we sort through it several times by hand before it even makes it to their buckets, to ensure that they're only getting top notch fish. :)

After fish house is done I go about my daily duties- cleaning various items and doing respirations on the animals. I also observe Beluga shows and try to learn the criteria of certain behaviors and the sDs (stands for discriminative stimulus, or hand signal) for each behavior. I've also started doing the Otter talk. That took me about a week to memorize, and it was 3 pages of script. So a few times a day, while the otters are being fed, I stand on microphone next to the exhibit and educate the public about our otters and their rescue stories. It's some pretty cool information, and I like that public speaking doesn't really scare me anymore. As long as I know what I'm talking about, I'm good to go.

Me giving my otter talk. :) Waving to my adoring fans- ha!

The interns are also responsible for doing 'Daisy plays'. Daisy is our Harbor Porpoise. She was found stranded on Gonzales Beach 3 years ago when she was 4-6 weeks old and was brought to the Marine Mammal Rescue Center. She was evaluated by the vet and given a less than 10% chance of survival. But survive she did. That little porpoise made it through, and now she is a full-grown 3 year old, and has one of the biggest personalities. Because of her condition after her rehab, she was deemed non-releasable and so came to live at the aquarium. As interns our job is to entertain her essentially. We get to pick out toys and for 15 minutes we do a play session with her. She gets so many play sessions a day, I don't think she is ever bored. She's really sweet, but has an attitude at the same time. She is a porpoise, but if I had to pick something to compare her to, the most common thing said is a baby dolphin.

Daisy

Speaking of porpoises, I've also done a few volunteer shifts at the Marine Mammal Rescue Center, where they are currently caring for another little Harbor Porpoise- similar to Daisy- who goes by the name of Jack. He was found in a similar situation as Daisy, and, like Daisy, he had to be put under 24-hour surveillance. So there is always a volunteer watching him, counting his respirations, keeping his back wet (he's in a sling because he can't swim well from being stranded- it was originally Daisy's sling) and helping with his feeding sessions. He's steadily growing stronger, and he is the cutest thing. I hope that if he can't be released that he'll come to the aquarium to live with Daisy. They would make a cute little couple. The rescue center does some amazing work. Just this year alone they've rescued and rehabbed over 150 animals. They mostly get harbor seals, but had a male California Sea Lion named Flash Gordon who they just released a few weeks ago, and obviously they have Jack. Super interesting work that they do.

As far as everyone at the Aquarium goes, I love my co-workers. Everyone seems really nice and supportive, and I am learning so much from the trainers on the Beluga/Otter team, and not to mention everyone else. I'm constantly learning something, and people always take the time to explain why they're doing something the way they're doing it so I can understand.

As for Vancouver, the city is so interesting. It's a very young, cultured, green city. Everyone bike rides here, and there's public transit all over the place. It's a little big for me, and I wish I had a car so I could actually get places really easily whenever I want. Other than that I like it a lot. I do wish it was more sunny, but hey, in the Pacific Northwest you can't exactly expect sunshine all the time. I am definitely not tan like I was in Bermuda, but hey, my hair still has the highlights in it. :) I do miss my family and friends a lot, but it's nice that I have the internet and a phone here so I can keep in touch with them.

Speaking of family, my mom and dad actually came to visit me last week, from Tues-Sunday, which was awesome. After work on Tues I met up with them, we went to dinner, and then on Wednesday we toured around Grouse Mountain (which I live at the base of). It had amazing views, and I might even be inspired to try the Grouse Grind (this really intense mountain hike to the top). Afterwards we headed to Horseshoe Bay, had lunch, and then went to catch the ferry over to Nanaimo. We spent the night in Nanaimo and went touring around a bit the next day.

Dad, Me, and Mom together again in VanCity. :)

Then we went to Victoria, which is a really cool town- has a very English feel- and went WHALE WATCHING. I have always wanted to see a whale out in the ocean, and so I can finally check that off my list. We saw so many things. Elephant Seals, Harbor Seals, Steller Sea Lions, California Sea Lions, Humpback Whales, and Orcas! It was an amazing and riveting experience. The killer whales were hunting, and we even got to hear them echolocating. Our guide had been working with the company for 15 years, and he knew all the whales and their families. We saw a 21 year old male and his 4 year old brother hunting together- so cute. The humpbacks where amazing. Right before they'd go into their deep dives they would lift their tail flukes out of the water like you see in all the pictures, and it was so epic. The two we saw the most was a mother-daughter pair, and they were amazing and HUGE. Dang, whales are big. We took lots and lots of pictures. We even got to dress up in these awesome red suits- which kept us warm and actually acted as our flotation devices. How precious we looked. ;)

Me with an Orca in the background!

Mom and Dad and I on the Zodiak

That night we went to dinner at a really delicious Chinese restaurant and had some really good spring rolls. So yummy. Unfortunately I left my leftovers in the hotel fridge. :( But the next day we went up to the Butchart Gardens. The Butchart family had quite a bit of money, but they invested a LOT of time into their gardens, which were spectacular. I would love to see a wedding take place at this place, because it was huge and gorgeous. They had a Japanese Garden, a zen garden, a rose garden, you name it, they had it. There was even this old quarry that they turned into this fantastic sunken garden. So beautiful. After that we headed back to the ferry and got back into Vancouver. I got to take my parents to Legendary Noodles (this oriental place where they make the noodles by hand in front of you- SO GOOD) and then we had a chill night.

Butchart Gardens

Mom and I by the Dahlias in Butchart Gardens

The next day, Mom and Dad came to see me at the Aquarium! I got them some passes, so they came in and got to hear my otter talk- mom was filming... And they got to see a Beluga show as well. They even got to do an encounter with our Pacific White-sided Dolphins, which we all loved. They're truly amazing, and I think they had a really good time. I love being able to show people what I love and what I get to do everyday. After that, they picked me up from work, we went to dinner, and then we had another relaxing night. Sadly, they left the next morning. (I miss you Mom and Dad!) It was so nice that they were able to come out and see me. Made Vancouver seem a little more like home.

Mom meeting Spinnaker

Dad meeting Spinnaker

Me meeting Spin

Fam with Spin :) :)

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this very long update. It took me a long time haha. I hope the pictures satisfy you! :) Keep me updated, I miss everyone from home! Love you all.

Kels