It's hard working in this field for a large corporation instead of a non-profit institution. The "higher ups" have no concern for the well being of our animals, and don't take our expertise into mind.. seems like they don't even recognize that we are good at what we are do and we have extensive training in it. Of course THEY know better because they are high up in the company.
Today, one of them said something like, "I want you to keep stocking the tank, putting more and more fish in until they are knocking on the window saying 'I need more oxygen!'" Wow. Just wow. They don't know the millions of little factors that go into having an increased number of fish: water quality, livable habitat and hiding spots, spread of disease, etc.. let alone it's just inhumane for the poor fish. But they just want it to look pretty.
Interesting though, that to others, the aquarium is only more beautiful if there is a ton of fish in it. It's as if that's how they really think the ocean is in nature: that every inch is packed with fish. Not only is that just not true in the natural sense but also reflects the fact that people think the ocean has an endless supply of fish... which we know is definitely not true considering we fish species after species to near-extinction.
I'm in this field first and foremost for the well-being of the animals. I'm not the biggest supporter of capturing these tropical fish and keeping them in captivity, but I know the field is not going anywhere and I'm happy to be here to try and give them the best life possible. So at least I can take solace in that fact.
I really do enjoy my job and I'm glad I'm at the place I'm at... but sometimes it's just hard to remember we're dealing with a company whose major goal is profit... while we're sitting in our office just wanting to educate the public about the ocean and keep our fish happy.
Yesterday at work I had to opportunity to go out on our little boat and go kelp collecting (Kelp is the food of many of our so-cal and northern animals... like abalone). This was my first look at the water that everyone had been telling me was of horrible water quality.
When I first applied to the aquarium, my friend Francis and I decided they had to be an open system because they sit right on the ocean. An open system at an Aquarium means they take their water straight out of the ocean, it cycles through the aquarium, then goes right back out. The Ty Warner Sea Center in Santa Barbara has this type of system.
Upon starting work, I quickly learned that this is not the case, because the LA River flows right into the ocean here. Since LA is possibly one of the most polluted areas in the country, this is bad news for our water systems. Annie Crawley from Dive Into Your Imagination always says "Everything we do on land affects the ocean." I think the people of LA really need to learn this lesson.
As I was out on that little boat for only a half hour, I saw so many disturbing things.
1. The water building up in the back of the harbor had all of this disgusting brown stuff floating around. Whether it was broken down debris, or waste from a boats ballast, I don't know but it can't be good for the water.
2. The water further out was quite murky. Granted productive waters like those in California are not going to be clear, but this was not the healthy kind of "murky."
3. Upon exiting the harbor, we saw a group of seagulls standing on a platform. One of them was eating a styrofoam cup. After shaking it around for a bit, it fell back in the water for another unsuspecting animal to find.
4. We saw countless pieces of trash floating around as we made our way out to the breakwater (the breakwater is a big underwater wall built to protect the fleet that used to be stationed here)
5. On the way back in, we saw another seabird swimming around with a fish line in its mouth.
This all was extremely shocking to me, considering we were only out for a short period of time. It made me realize even more just how incredible Annie's trip to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was... to find so many tiny bits of plastic 1000 miles off the coast. We all need to learn about our watersheds and how we are affecting them with our garbage.
But what is a watershed? Princeton.edu says: "the entire geographical area drained by a river and its tributaries; an area characterized by all runoff being conveyed to the same outlet." Basically this means that a watershed is where water comes from when rain falls. We are polluting our watersheds through litter, agricultural runoff, and everything you dump into your gutter.
And all of this, no matter how far away fromt he ocean you are, eventually ends up in the ocean.
So why should we care?
1. While 70% of the planet is covered in water, only about 3% is freshwater. Our freshwater systems, like the LA River as so polluted that they completely destroy water in the ocean? That is shocking. Not only that, but we need this freshwater for ourselves- for our showers, to drink.... why are we so careless with such a small amount of fresh water?
2. Through the water cycle, the ocean provides us with water. We don't want that water to be polluted.
3. The ocean provides 50-90% of our oxygen. We need to protect something this important.
4. The ocean provides us with food, and that supply is quickly dwindling as it is through overfishing. Why kill more fish with pollution?
5. Chemicals that are made into plastic, and chemicals that are attracted to plastic in the water may build up in the tissues of animals we eat. We are polluting ourselves. We Californians are completely filled with the chemicals, PBDEs from all of the flame retardants that are required on pretty much everything we own. The level in Californians is ridiculously higher than in every other state.
6. The ocean is a source of recreation, and is beautiful and breath-taking.
So I encourage you to learn about your watershed... and those of us in LA need to change our behaviors, because the pollution in the LA River has so many negative effects.
So after 3 months of no luck finding a paying job, I was looking on the AZA website per my usual routine and saw an ad for internships at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I figured, hey, it's close, and it will give me the specific experience that's holding me back from all the paid jobs I couldn't get. I was only offered an interview for one of the many jobs I applied for, and that was for a part time food prep job at a zoo in Boston. Except they wanted me to fly out there within the next few days on my money and interview for them. What? They straight up told me it wouldn't be worth it for me.. so so much for that.
So applied for the internships at the Aquarium of the Pacific. You could apply for all of them at once which was nice, and then just list the ones you wanted in order of most to least. I think the order I chose was Aquarist > Education > Program Animals > Marine Mammals > Aviculture... or something like that. Well after a phone interview (yes, I live 2 hours from the aquarium and they did a phone interview, yet Boston wouldn't do one) and an in person interview, I had the Aquarist Internship.
So to Long Beach I moved after perusing Craigslist for a place to live. I started on January 11, and I have been enjoying myself ever since.
Now, an Aquarist job isn't as glamorous as it sounds. One of the 3 aquarists I work under called it a "glorified janitor job" and it's totally true, but it's totally fun! Yeah there's a lot of hard work changing filter bags, cleaning protein skimmers, and keeping the exhibits looking spotless... but for some reason it's still fun. Probably because I regularly get to feed awesome animals like sting rays and zebra sharks. Oh yeah, I'm in the Tropical section.
There are 5 different sections the aquarists could work in. Southern California, Northern, Jellies, Shark Lagoon, and Tropical. All of the galleries represent a zone in the Pacific ocean (thus, Aquarium of the Pacific).
You know, everyone is so pessimistic about their current situation. But of course since I am the eternal optimist, I see things right now a little differently, at least for those of us that just graduated.
About an hour ago I looked at my Blackberry, which was flashing red telling me I had a message, and saw an email from Chancellor Yang about some regents meeting to talk about increasing student fees mid-year. And of course I read the Nexus talking about how much everything was increasing this year fee-wise. So personally, I'm glad to be out of that place that just robs us poor old students blind.
And you know what? The job market really ISN'T that bad... I think we need to realize too that for a lot of majors, a B.A./B.S. just isn't enough anymore. More and more people go to college so our degrees are becoming less and less competitive. We're going to have to start out at lower level jobs that we would have had to a while ago.
The thing is, I'm in a REALLY competitive field and I'm still finding a ton of jobs I am qualified for. It just takes persistence and determination, and I think a lot of people gave up as soon as they walked across that stage to get their fake diploma.
Also, in some cases we may even have a BETTER chance at getting a job because they can pay us less than all those other, very qualified people looking for jobs.
But maybe I'm just in a really good mood because I got an interview for an internship at the Long Beach Aquarium. Woo! Nah, I really believe everything I'm saying and I really think that we shouldn't lose hope, because there ARE jobs out there, even if they're not what we were expecting... AND we don't have to pay all the ridiculous fees to stay in college (even though college was a GREAT time).
So I guess all I'm saying is that we all need to keep our chins up and be thankful for what's been put in front of us.
Why is it that when I find jobs to apply to, I get nervous about it and put it off? I think the whole process just intimidates me... I feel like I'm not good enough, not smart enough, not friendly enough... but that's not true. I have so many qualifications and I always interview really well... I think I've always had fun interviews. Lots of laughing. That's good right?
The hard part about some of the jobs is they want all this extensive and specific experience... but how am I supposed to get that experience if everyone requires it? I have a LOT of general experience, but not a broad range of specific experience.
I just need to be confident in myself. I can do it!
As I continue to entertain my boyfriend as a guest, I am working on applying to two more jobs. One as a Cheetah Keeper at a zoo in Oregon, and another as an education mentor for the animal care team at another zoo. I figure if I put out 100 job applications.. I have to at least hear back from one... right?
It's just so frustrating continually applying and filling out a new, long online application for each job when I don't even get an interview. I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing some error in my resume or something. I just have to keep telling myself that while I'm finding a lot of jobs that I am qualified for (as I have worked at a zoo/aquarium for a combined 2 years, which most of them want), there are a lot of people without jobs. This means that there are people that are quite overqualified applying.. and as soon as they apply my resume is gonna get thrown out.
Good things come to those who wait, right?
In the mean time I'm continuing to post photo albums and articles on http://www.DiveIntoYourImagination.com and our facebook page, which I made myself... mostly with pure html coding. I am going to be starting a twitter and facebook page for http://www.euroscrub.com... links to be posted when they are done.
Can't wait to get paid at the end of the month... me and my boyfriend are going to nice restaurants and eating me out of house and home!
