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

First day!! (Delayed)

Also, here's a photo of me on my first day in front of the beautiful Aquarium! Ah, still had my Bermuda tan. :( I miss the sun.

Hope you enjoy me and the tribal looking orca!

Alright yo.

So I have some time to blog now, and I figure I owe everyone an update. (Plus, I Skyped my mom, and she said I really should blog.)

So much has happened in the past few weeks. This new internship is totally different from the ones I've done in the past. But then again, they were all different from each other in many ways, so in a sense it's nothing new- but all new. Make sense?

We start out in fish house. Fish house is not like fish prep at my other internships. Fish prep for those usually started out in the early morning, and was only a few hours. From there you would go about other daily duties, etcetera. Fish house lasts all day. For as many animals as we have, it is an all-day thing. It's a lot of work, but it's so intensely important to how the facility and departments run that you begin to develop a real understanding for everything that goes on.

I've beeng getting more exposure to my daily duties, which is nice and exciting. I have gotten to watch more beluga sessions, and even seen a few otter talks, which I love. The otters are so cute and fluffy. :) They're funny when they groom themselves. OTTER FACT: otters will hold hands to keep from drifting apart while they sleep. (Cue the 'aww's)

So one main difference I've noticed between this internship and Dolphin Quest, besides the difference in animals, is the uniform. Dolphin Quest I was in a bathing suit, nearly 24/7. At VanAqua, I wear: a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, my short sleeve intern t-shirt, thick wool socks, yoga pants, waterproof work pants, tall rubber boots, a hat, and occasionally my raincoat. Oh yeah. Talk about layers. We also have shorts, a fleece, and Keens (a type of shoe) as part of our uniform. Clothes clothes clothes. And we all smell like fish. All the time. It's bad. Haha! (If you're my friend on Facebook, there is a lovely picture of me posted in my uniform. Oh yeahhhh.)

Aside from that we've been trying to learn our animal FAQs and just gather our bearings and try to learn all our information. It's been a busy, educational time.

Some of you may have seen the very very sad news we had last week. Our youngest beluga, Tiqa, died on Friday morning. Losing an animal is one of the saddest things I have ever experienced. For animal trainers, it is akin to losing a family member. It is something I would not wish on anyone. That day was so sad, and it was all I could think to do to just do my duties and get everything done on time and done right. As horrible as it is, it is part of the job. Thank you to everyone who expressed support and condolences for the aquarium and the staff in this difficult time.

I'll do my best to take some pictures and get stuff uploaded. Along with more updates.

Love you all.

Bermuda-Minnesota-Vancouver

Well, like usual I'm far overdue for a post.

In case you don't have time to read this massive novel, here is my few sentence summary: I left Bermuda, was home for 5 whole days, and moved to Vancouver. I have now started my fourth internship working with Beluga whales and Sea Otters. Instead of an ocean view I now have a mountain view.

I'll start at the beginning. Leaving Bermuda was so difficult. Definitely shed some tears over that one. I learned a phenomenal amount while living and working there. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I will always look back on my memories there with a smile and a warm fuzzy feeling. The people made me feel so accepted, and it only cemented my desire to work with marine mammals- it is what I want to do with my life. It was a beautiful occurrence. I met amazing people, and I can only hope that they continue to be a part of my life.

While home, I don't think I sat still for very long. I bought myself a new computer (Kelsey=poor now- macs are pricey! ha), went to my cabin for a night with some of my besties, saw both sides of the family, and switched out my summer clothes for cooler fall/winter clothes. That part made me feel sad. But I did enjoy being home. This whole moving all over the world experience would be a lot more difficult if I didn't have that time at home in between.

Upon arrival to Vancouver, I figured out Canadian customs and immigration doesn't have a soft spot for me. It took me 3 hours to get through it. I had to wait in a excruciatingly slow line to get my work permit, and found out later that it was because all the international students were coming in. My thought process on this was, 'Ugh even after I graduate school affects me'. Haha. Anyways, finally made it to my apartment, and I absolutely love it. It's definitely a step up from my living situation in Bermuda, and I have a view of the mountain. I suppose if I can't have the ocean view, a mountain view will do alright. We have a workout room, laundry room, and a pool. I was really excited about the pool because that means I can practice for swim tests for my (hopefully) upcoming job interviews. :) I haven't had much of a chance to explore the city yet, I arrived on Saturday and started my internship on Monday. Not much of a turnaround time.

So I guess the whole reason you're all reading this is to hear about my new internship. Well I'll tell you this. It is a learning experience all over again. I've found that the best way to come into a new internship is to pretend that you don't know a thing from your other ones, and just learn it from the bottom up. So the first week we're in fish house. (For those of you from other facilities or companies, fish house=fish prep). The big difference here is that when you're in fish house, you're in fish house for the entire day. We do fish prep for 4 Belugas, 3 Pacific White-sided Dolphins, 3 Sea Otters, 6 Fur Seals, 3 Harbor Seals, 1 Harbor Porpoise (The only one under human care in North America) and 4 Steller Sea Lions. That is a LOT of fish. We have 6 sinks. 2 measuring scales. Fish house is absolutely one of the most important things to learn, because it is the basis of training at most any aquarium or zoo. How can you care for an animal without fish? How can you train an animal without fish? It is the foundation of having animals under human care. So we're in there from 7-3 all this week. It's a lot to learn, and it is a lot of fishy gut-ness and cleaning. We clean everything. It's cool though because I think my cleanliness at work is reflecting in my cleanliness at home. I scrub everything here it seems. The only real downside to fish house is that we smell like the fish we prepare. Meaning clams. Clams seriously have the most nasty smell.

Anyways, we'll be working our way up to animal time and interacting more with the animals as the weeks go on. Eventually we'll be doing the otter talk too, which is very exciting. (Thank you Challenger, for preparing me...) :) Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this, hopefully I'll have some pictures of Van City for you soon! Feel free to skype me or drop a line- I miss you all.

Love love. BERMP BERRRRMP. :)

Today was so much fun. I got to do my first Discover Dolphins program solo. I was absolutely freaked out, but Robyn said go for it. So I did. It actually went really well, and I have a bit more confidence in my program-running abilities. :)

I ran backup with Robyn today as well, and she had the absolutely brilliant idea of doing some desense during the program by having a surfboard out there. So Robyn and I sat on the surfboard in the middle of the pool during the program just messing around. It was so much fun. Then, at the end when the program was over, Robyn laid down on the surfboard and had Ely come over and footpush us on the surfboard across the length of the pool. Absolutely amazing. They are such strong animals.

I'm still reeling from how much fun it was. :) It's been Cup Match here, so everything has been crazy, and I'll take the time to update you fully sometime this week.

Hope you're all well. Love love.

Visitors and Birthdays!

Hello all!

It's been a bit since my last post, but lots has happened in that time. My visitors came! Mom and Keyla flew to Baltimore to visit my sister for a few days, and then caught a flight down to Bermuda to see me! It was so nice to see them. But first, I'll update about work a little bit.

So I've been getting more involved in programs. We are talking more during them, and I've noticed my confidence has increased. I cannot stress enough though, the importance of enthusiastic and receptive guests. It makes our job so much easier if the guests are excited and happy to be there. We do get people that come in who act like they could care less. When I see them I think to myself, 'If you don't want to do this, then why are you spending the money to do it?' It just doesn't make any sense to me. So that makes our job a little more difficult, because I know I for one feel like I have to compensate energetic-ness for their lack of it. So, if you guys ever do an interactive program, get excited! It's not everyday that you get to spend time with an animal that calls the ocean its home. It makes our job so much easier and more fun for everyone involved- plus the dolphins feed off your energy and they will get more excited as well. :)

Anyways, so last week was my birthday. :) I turned 22. I did have to work on my birthday, but when have I ever minded spending a day around dolphins. I was on photo for my birthday, so I spent my day taking pictures of everybody. I like photo, it's taught me the value of a good photograph. People always smile when they see their pictures too, which is nice. So it was a pretty busy day, and then when I came inside from shooting a program for lunch, everyone was sitting there with a cake and yelled 'Happy Birthday!' I was really surprised. It was so nice. They made me wear a tiara and took me out and bought my lunch. :) I have good friends here. And then, at the end of the day, Robyn (one of the trainers) told me to go put my camera away and come back outside. I was really confused, but then they put the tiara back on me and told me to get in the water with Caliban so I could take birthday pictures with her. It was so much fun, and Jamie (the DQ photographer) even brought his underwater camera so I have a few underwater photos with Cali as well. It was definitely one of the best days of my life.

Birthday kiss from Caliban! :)

Underwater! :)

Then, after work, I rushed home and packed up and headed into Hamilton to meet my Mom and Keyla! They arrived on my birthday- greatest birthday presents ever. :) The hotel we stayed in was amazing- infinity pool! Woo! So it was really nice to see them, and we went out to Rosa's Cantina for my birthday. The next day we went to Elbow Beach. I hadn't been there yet and it was absolutely gorgeous. They liked the pink sand and the blue water. Nice and relaxing. Then we headed to Dolphin Quest and they got to do their dolphin program! They loved it, it was very exciting to be able to show them around. They got to meet Bailey, Cavello, Caliban, and Cooper. After that we explored Dockyard and ate dinner at the Frog and Onion.

My visitors! :)

Dancing with Cali

The next day we traveled to Tom Moore's Jungle and Keyla and Mom got to jump into Blue Hole. That was so much fun. We snorkeled around and took some pictures. Afterwards we went to the Swizzle Inn for lunch- I really like that place. Good food and I love the gift shop as well. Then we made our way to St. George's and toured around. Had fun in the stocks and enjoyed some of the historic-ness of Bermuda. We took the ferry back, and we got to see Bermuda from the ocean, which was cool. We even had a local on the ferry explaining what everything was and gave us a bit of history. It's always nice to have someone from the area point things out to you. Then we hung out at the hotel for the rest of the night. We were exhausted.

Tom Moore's Jungle!

The last day I spent with them we went shopping in Hamilton a bit and then went snorkeling at Church Bay- which was beautiful but it was really rough that day, so the swimming was a bit difficult. Then we actually just went back to the hotel and spent time at the pool. We'd done so much running around the past few days that it was nice to just relax and enjoy the view. Sadly after that I had to go back to Dockyard, so they grabbed the ferry over with me and helped me bring my stuff back. Then we went to dinner and they got the ferry back to Hamilton. I hate saying goodbye, but I know I'll see them in a few weeks. So that helps. I'm glad that they were able to visit me and they were able to see where I've called home the past few months.

So last night Lindsey and I went with some of the crew from work to go see the glowworms. They only glow the day after a full moon 56 minutes after sunset or something like that. Really specific. They were really cool though, but they only glow for about 10 minutes. But that was exciting.

Then today, we had a TON of rain in the morning at work, because the outskirts of a tropical storm/hurricane hit Bermuda. Wasn't anything dangerous, it just rained a LOT. I'm still waiting for my first hurricane experience. Granted, I want it to be a small one. But a hurricane nonetheless. :) Exciting.

Anyways, that's about it for now, I'll let you guys know if anything else happens. :) Love love.

P.S. We are in the midst of a cockroach battle. We saw it, but lost it somewhere in the room. I doubt any of us are going to sleep well tonight... I hate those things. Saw one fly yesterday. Nasty buggers.

Echolocation!

Hello lovelies! Here's an update for ya!

So we've been working more on programs and getting us interns involved. Basically what we are up to now is talking about the dolphin body parts during the swim portion of the session. That includes their fins, flippers, flukes, mouth, blowhole, etc. Lots of things we can say. We've been gradually working up to doing layouts during the platform portion of sessions as well, which is exciting.

The other day I got to do a physical molding session with Marley, one of the calves. Basically it was me and the supervisor swimming around with her, and then I would just rub her down and roll her over. That's one of the best ways to build relationships with them. They're relaxed in the water, and rubbing them down is really reinforcing for them. It was so much fun.

So we occasionally do education programs for school groups or camps that come through, and sometimes we'll put a hydrophone in the water. It broadcasts to the speakers around the Keep and you can hear the dolphins whistling and can hear the clicks from their echolocation. Because of my hearing I couldn't hear the echolocation in the water like everyone else, until we had the hydrophone. I was so excited that I finally got to hear it. At the same time, I was a little bummed I couldn't hear it in the water like everybody else. I was wrong! Lottie (one of the trainers/intern coordinator) and I were paired up for a session the other day, and she knew about my hearing and how much I wanted to hear it with my own ears. So, she had one of the calves, and fed the calf right next to my ear, and I heard it! I was so happy. It's just one of those things that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. Makes me feel better too knowing that I just have to be close by in order to hear it.

So exciting update: Mom and Keyla are visiting this week! They arrive tomorrow (my birthday!) and are staying until Friday. I am so excited. I've been a little bit homesick lately and this will definitely cure it. Plus they'll be here for my birthday! What a grand birthday present.

Anyways, hope this is enough to satiate you guys for a little while. :) I'll have another update after my visitors head home probably (sad thought!). Love love.