Aquarium orientation

I had my aquarium orientation today! It was supposed to be at 10:30, but because of the ******* traffic, I wasn't able to arrive until nearly 11:00! I did call ahead of time to let the volunteer manager know that I was running late.

So, I arrived, and was given a short tour with another volunteer. We went to the "backside" of the tank that holds the turtles and rays, along with a few sharks. There were a couple of divers just getting done with a presentation, and we just watched all of the different marine life floating around. I did notice one fish in a school of about 20 that was kind of doing figure 8s around the school... poor guy probably has his wires crossed somewhere. The aquarium has several holding tanks for species that are being rehabilitated or have a bit of growing up that they need to do before being released with the "big guys".

I feel very lucky that I was picked to volunteer. Not only is it such a cool opportunity, but it sounds like there was a bit of competition... and the other volunteer that attended the orientation said he kind of regrets that he didn't sign up for the "fish and invertebrates" department (which is the one I'll be working in). I actually felt a little guilty, since this guy has a Master's degree in biology, and did a ton of research on fish--he obviously has a lot more experience with this kind of thing than I do! But, he also said that with his schedule being so erratic, he didn't think he'd be able to commit to the fish and inverts, which requires two days per month, and 8 hours each day.

I do think it's a bit ironic that I turned down a job working downtown, and yet I'm driving downtown (actually, further than downtown--the aquarium is in Camden, NJ) for an UNPAID volunteer position, lol. Oh, well. I'm pretty thrilled about the stuff I'll be able to learn and do.

After orientation was done, the volunteer manager took us to the "backside" of the shark realm. They had dozens of lights above the tank, which I'm assuming were UV lights. It was really neat to be able to view all the sharks and other species without a bunch of noisy kids distracting me and annoying camera flashes going off (though we did see a bunch of flashes, as the tank had a big tunnel going through it for people to walk through).

Here's a link to the aquarium: http://www.adventureaquarium.com/ (I'm a bit partial to the Omaha Zoo's aquarium, and probably a bit biased, too. ;) While the Adventure Aquarium has a tunnel, it just doesn't seem to be as well done as the tunnel at the Omaha Zoo.)