The Whistle

March Madness has officially begun! My bracket is filled out and of course I have Michigan State going all the way. I can't turn my back to my alma mater even though they have been placed in the bracket of death with a bunch of other big-wig teams! So as I watch the first round games I will share with you all my exciting week!

On Tuesday, I had to the chance to shadow another department at the aquarium. I chose to follow around one of the veterinary interns at the aquarium and see what veterinary medicine is like at an aquarium. We started our rounds doing physicals on the stranding seals. At Mystic Aquarium, they have a stranding department where they take in marine mammals and rehabilitate them back to health prior to release. Currently, the stranding department has 4 grey seal pups. They are all so cute and have the biggest eyes! Since these pups are wild, untrained animals with super sharp teeth, physicals are limited. So once the seals were restrained, just blood samples were taken and their lungs and heart beat were listened to. I was lucky enough to listen to one to the pups heart beat and lungs! Next on the appointment list was a sick lizard. It's a filled lizard and was having digestive issues and regurgitating his food. So the vet gave him some sub-cutaneous fluids and some medicine to help pass food. After that we had to investigate the cause of death of a fish. So I got to experience my first fish necropsy. Interesting I know. They scrapped an abrasion around the fish gill and looked at it under a microscope. And low and behold we determined the cause of death to be flukes -- which is a parasite. It was what the vet had believed based on observations. So I got to see what parasitic flukes look like -- pretty gnarly. And then to top off the dead fish, we went to examine a fish with an infected eye. Who would of thought eye surgery could be conducted on fish?! But its possible and that fishes eye was so bad looking that the vet had to schedule to a time to get it removed. Too bad I wasn't able to witness the fish eye surgery! In the afternoon we took a trip to my territory for a whale ultrasound. Its currently breeding season for the belugas, so the vets are keeping a close eye on follicle development in their ovaries. We examined Naku and discovered she had a nice size follicle developing in one of her ovaries. Our final stop on the veterinary rounds was with the stellar sea lions at PI. I got to go on PI's beach for the first time and see how they feed and interact with sea lions. Then I got to see a session with Kodiak, which is the largest sea lion on exhibit. He is massive! And everytime I hear his name, I always think of the movie 'Surfs Up' when all the penguins say "cody cody cody cody". But anyways he was getting a mock injection to help build up that husbandry behavior so he can take needle sticks for blood or meds if need be. Overall, it was a super awesome and fun day. I got to see many different aspects of marine animal care at the aquarium and see animals I really haven't gotten a chance to see since I have been there.

But on to the more exciting news that every whale intern strives for. On Wednesday I was scheduled to take my 'whistle exam'. This is just a simple and easy quiz they give to the whale interns to make sure they understand the basics of training and how its applied. So I took my exam and it was like being back in school. A lot of pressure to obtain a little, but very important, whistle. I finished my 'exam' and turned it in to my mentor and we went over the answers. She was extremely pleased with my answers and said I had passed. And in her hand was my shiny new whistle! I could not help but be in awe with a perma-smile glued on my face! I never thought I would be so excited over a whistle but its a big deal! I now can feel like a trainer and have endless possibilities with behaviors! It was like an award ceremony and Lynn my mentor placed the whistle on the lanyard around my neck like I was receiving a medal! And everyone clapped and congratulated me! It felt so weird yet so good to have that whistle around my neck -- I couldn't help but just stare at it in amazement! So then during the next feeding schedule, I actually got to use my whistle as a bridge on the whales. My whistles were a little soft to begin with but as soon I get use it more and get more comfortable with it, they will become nice clean whistle bridges! Its definitely fun having the power of the whistle! I now have a good excuse to go shopping and look for the perfect lanyard for my whistle!

Family Invasion and Bubblahs

Epic fail at the updating. Over the past couple weeks a lot has happened! My family came and visited me last week! I was so glad to see them and it seemed like forever since I had seen them, even though its been like 2 months! We all had a great time and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed touring around and visting my work too! Last Monday (3/1) I was able to get them into a behind the scenes tour of where I work and even have them do a whales up close program. They got to see how much I have learned already because I was actually placed in charge of their program! And of course Naku (the tank) was a rock star and did very well for the program. They were able to give her tongue rubs, feed her ice cubes, and touch her melon. It was a lot of fun and I hope they had an amazing experience! 'Cause I know for sure I enjoyed showing them how much fun it is working with these whales!

Last Tuesday (3/2) my mom, Jordan, and myself went to visit the Big Apple for the day. We drove down the New Haven (which is like 45 minutes from New London where I live) and took the commuter train into NYC. We had planned on taking an early train in but when arrived we found the train station but no parking lot. We drove around turning down one-way after one-way streets and finally found a sketchy parking lot. We parked and walked 10 minutes to the train station to find a huge 6-story parking lot right next to the train station. Fail. So we went and bought our train tickets for the next train because we missed our first train. Double Fail. After getting our tickets, we sped-walked to the car and moved it to the parking garage. We got back and boarded the train and were en route to New Yoorrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkk (concrete jungles where dreams are made of). About halfway there, the train starts to slow down. And since we sat near the front of the train, we heard a buzzer going off. The train would start to speed up again only to hear the buzzer go off again. Appearantly they were having communication problems and could only travel at the slowest speed possible for safety reasons. Super. So here we are going what seemed like 10 mph down the track. We finally arrived to Grand Central Station a little bit behind schedule. Grand Central Station is huuuggee! There were like a hundred different tracks that leave the station and go every different direction. The inside is just amazing -- pretty architecture and lights. We walked out into the city and were immediately surrounded by big buildings and people everywhere. First stop on our tourist list was Times Square. I have never seen so many buildboard and animations! One thing that makes New York so unique is it feels 'bright' when compared to like Chicago. And I can't imagine Times Square during New Years Eve -- but it would be fun to see! We went into M&M world with walls full of ridiculously priced M&M's (12 bucks per pound) and checked out Hersheys. M&M world is by far the cooler of the 2. Next stop: Rockefeller Plaza. We saw Radio City Music Hall, NBC studios and the ice rink. I wanted to go take a couple laps on the ice but it was a little pricey -- a common trend in NYC. We continued on our journey and stopped at St. Patricks Cathedral. Its so pretty inside with all the stained glass and tall ceilings. On our way to Central Park, we stopped in at FAO Schwartz the toy store with the giant floor keyboard. So of course I had to try it out! I was able to play the beginning of Fur Elise but it was a little bit harder since I had to literally jump to the keys! Right across the street from FAO stood Central Park. Its a lot bigger than what I had anticipated! And I never realized there was a small zoo inside the park as well! We found the ice rink that is of course sponsored by none other than Trump and I couldn't help but think of Home Alone 2 when the 'sticky bandits' were skating there. Our day was coming to an end sadly and we had to hoof it back to the train station. There is so much we didn't get a chance to see like ground zero and the statue of liberty. It's hard to take in the whole city in one day. But I'd say we did a decent job of getting a taste of the city! And to top it off no train issues on the way back home!

Wednesday (3/3) my dad wanted to check out one of the casinos nearby called Mohegan Sun. And poor Jordan was the only one to young to gamble! But we all tried our luck at the slot machines. My mom and I walked away losers but my dad managed to win some cash money. Those slots seem alot tighter than those in Michigan! I was hoping to win some money to buy a new coach purse :) But no coach for me this time around :( I had to settle for some Ben and Jerrys instead!

Currently, I am about halfway done with my internship! I can't believe it! It has all gone by so fast but I am looking forward to what lies ahead! I finished up my data collection for my project. So now the paper writing and statistics can come into full swing! I am continuing to learn more behaviors and next week sometime I take my whistle exam! Pretty soon I will have an awesome new whistle and feel like an official trainer! Juno, our newest addition, is making significant progress. He has come a long way since getting here in January but the young whale still has a ways to go! Junos arrival kind of got put on the back burner since the whole Inuk issue came about. Hes a 7 year old male that came from Sea World. He is so stinkin cute and has kind of a cleft lip! I can't wait til I get to work with him sometime in the future! Hes going to be a lot of fun!

The other day I got asked thee weirdest question. I was walking back with Margaret (another intern) and Brittany (a volunteer) from lunch and this lady with a death grip on her childs hand asked, 'wheres the bubblah?' I looked at her as if she had 15 heads! What the heck is a 'bubblah'?! I was thinking to myself "Is that a fish?" Thank goodness Brittany was there to help her out. I guess a bubblah (actually called a bubbler) is like a water fountain. And people make fun of me for saying pop...

Inuk

As most of you probably know or have heard by now, Inuk sadly passed away last Saturday February 20. It was a rough time for not only the whale team, but staff, volunteers, and the community as a whole. The whole day felt like my head was in a fog. No one could really comprehend what had just happened. I was pretty upset he was gone, but what really hit me was seeing the trainers. You form such incredible bonds working with the animals they essentially become part of the family. Many worked with him since the time they started working at Mystic. So it was hard to see them lose an animal they loved. He touched so many lives during his time here. Everyone will never forget his wonderful and charming personality! He truely was an amazing animal! I am so grateful I was able to spend some time with him during my internship and get to see how awesome of a whale he was! I will never forget his victory 'head nod' with both eyes closed, mouth wide open, and strands of drool hanging out the corner of his mouth! It's definitely going to be different around the exhibit. It will always feel like somethings missing -- the unused triangle shape for start of sessions and the empty red/white buckets sitting on the shelf :( But we must look at the bright side of things and carry on! I hope all find comfort in knowing we gave it our all and provided him with the best care possible! We all fought just as hard as he did, but it just wasn't meant to be. He passed on his own terms and we really couldn't have wanted it any other way. He will always hold a special places in many peoples hearts including my own and I will cherish all the great memories I had in my short time with him!

Now that things are slowly getting back to normal at work, my list of behaviors on the girls is growing! I have lots of different vocals including low and high range, chirps, clicks, and beluga style foghorn! I also learned head nod yes, ball/ring toss (where you place a ring on the lower jaw and they fling it up for you to catch!), and my personal favorite high fives! Thats right...I said high fives! Its not everyday you get to high five a beluga whale :) Pretty soon I will be doing my 'whistle exam' where I will get a training whistle to use as my bridge! I never thought I would be so excited to get a whistle! But once I get it, my behaviors are endless! I will be able to send the whales out to do lots of stuff away from the beach! My mentor, Lynn, was talking to me about the seasonal position during the summer. She said I should look into it and it sounds like it would be a lot of fun! They help with all the encounter programs during the summer and its paid! I will definitely have to think about it! It would be a fun summer job -- a lot better than pop testing thats for sure!

My family is coming to town tomorrow! I'm excited to see them! I am going to try and get them into the aquarium on Monday and show them around so they can see where I work! But other than that no big plans! I just hope we have pretty decent weather while they are here. The past 2 days it has been raining and now today it started snowing! Crazy!

I will leave you all with some thrilling pics from Boston since I didn't post any last time..

Old City Hall

Quincy Market

Boston Skyline from Bunker Hill Monument

Cat and Myself in the Boston Common

Where everyone knows your name!

Shipping Up To Boston

Yikes! Almost 2 weeks since my last post..whoops! But its alright, everyone can relax now because I am finally updating! Between caring for a sick whale and still managing to take care of the other whales, work still has been keeping me super busy. I literally have been working, eating, and sleeping with an occasional break thrown in there! They just switched up my schedule and changed my days off. So I worked 7 days in a row and am now finally enjoying my weekend! With all that has been going on with Inuk, I still am pressing on with the internship and learning behaviors on the girls. So far this week, I have learned station spins, low vocals, chirps, and melon shake. Melon shake is one of my favorites so far. I will be learning some more behaviors this coming Thursday! It's so cute, after every behavior Kela does, she makes this 'yay! i did it' vocal! And Naku just makes vocals all the time, especially during after session tongue rubs. All the routine work is just becoming second nature and I can get them done in no time now.

Last Monday, another intern and myself went and checked out the good ol city of Boston (or Bahston). It was about a 1.5 hour drive from New London to get to a subway station known as the Boston T. From there it was like another 20 minute ride into downtown Boston. Along the way into Boston, we passed Fenway park -- home to the Red Sox. I would love to check out one of their games while I'm here! The city of Boston was really neat -- lots of really old brick buildings. It was not the typically big city you think of (like Chicago). Its not as tall and you can walk majority of it in no time. We did the typical tourist trap of walking the Freedom Trail. It basically took you through all of downtown Boston to all the different historical places. We got to see Paul Reveres house, the church where the lantern was hung to warn of the British coming, old burial grounds, the site of the Boston Massacre, and other places. It took us through different neighborhoods like a Pub alley and little Italy. We stopped at Quincy Market where they have different food vendors lined up and down the building. They had every type of food imaginable and I tried a canolli for the first time -- delicious! We went across the harbor into Charlestown where we saw Bunker Hill. They have a monument with 294 steps to the top. I thought of the brilliant idea to climb up all those stairs to see the top (spiral staircase nonetheless). By the time we reached the top both of us were huffing and puffing and my legs could no longer move. But the view from the top was worth it. You could see all of the Boston skyline and the inner harbor. We walked back to downtown and had dinner at the place where Cheers was filmed -- the place where everyone supposedly knows your name, but they didn't know mine. By the end of the day, our feet were aching from a good walking trip in Boston! There are alot of places we missed that I will have to go back and see!

Also during this past week I survived my first Nor-easter! These are the big storms that occur in the Northeastern part of the US (hence the name). They were predicting about a foot or more of snow to fall in the area. It was weird to see everyone kind of freaking out about this snow storm. Everything began to close way before the storm even came. Back in Michigan, its not uncommon for us to get lots of snow and snowstorms. And they tend to cancel things as the storm hits or after. Here it was a little bit different and it probably didn't help that the DC/Baltimore area was getting hammered with snow. Everyone was closing up shops the day before and stashing up on supplies. The aquarium was declared closed the day before too. The storm finally arrived and hit was pretty heavy, thick snow that was falling. I shoveled the beach on the exhibit and 5 minutes later you couldn't even tell I shoveled. It was nice to see a good snowstorm -- reminded me alot of back home :) Driving back home was a real treat. I was averaging about 30 down the highway and since I live on a hill, I had to gun it up an unplowed street. I thought I was going to get stuck a couple times but I made it back safe and sound! The go figure the next day it was 37 degrees and all the snow began to melt.

Since its Fat Tuesday I'm off to go find a yummy paczki!

Birthday Weekend

What a crazy, chaotic, emotional, and stressful week this has been! I am so lost on my days since I have practically lived at the aquarium since Saturday. A situation arose on Friday that caught everyone off-guard. Inuk, the male beluga, wasn't acting like his normal self and was showed no interest in his food. It was a clear sign that something was wrong. We were able to run a blood test and it showed he was going through renal (kidney) failure. Not the best of news to hear. He has been receiving care and fluids throughout the day. And everyone has been so awesome and going out of their way to help and be supportive -- its truely amazing! I felt it necessary that I help out as much as possible. So I have been going in as much as I physically can and helping out with the procedures. From a veterinary aspect, this is great experience to see how whales are treated and see how marine mammal medicine is conducted in an extreme case. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for Inuk and send prayers and positive thoughts his way for a speedy recovery :)

On to other news, Gertie Bomb (my aunt Gertie) came up to visit this past weekend to celebrate my birthday! I went and picked her up at the train station and we went to eat at Mystic Pizza. Famous place because of the movie, but the pizza is alright. Its no Peppinos like back at home though! After lunch we decided to do some road tripping and try to find a local beach. During our travels down Route 1, we came across signs for a winery. So wouldn't you know it, we went looking for a beach and found a winery instead ;) We were left with no choice but to do some taste testing from the Stonington Winery! For the most part, most of the wines were alright -- there were only 2 that I really liked and would recommend buying. We then visited downtown Stonington and randomly came across the Old Lighthouse Museum (although it was closed) and the DuBois Beach.

We headed to Newport, Rhode Island on Monday for a day trip. It was a little over an hour away and we crossed some pretty neat bridges with awesome views. Newport is an interesting place but in a cool way! A lot of old buildings from the 1700's and even cobblestone streets! Some of the streets are just wide enough to fit one car down. So driving downtown Newport was a little tricky and had skinny streets going in everyway possible. Luckily with my driving, we didn't get lost :) We had planned on having a nice lunch at the White Horse Tavern which is one of the oldest operating taverns! But we arrived only to find a sign saying 'Winter Hours Thurs - Sat'. Just our luck. So we looked at our tourist map and picked out another resturant just up the street. We walked along an old cobblestone street with cute little shops. Got to the resturant and it was all boarded up for repairs. Strike 2. Finally we found a nice pub to eat at and enjoyed a nice lunch after a couple epic fails. We went and walked the Cliff Walk a little bit that went along the ocean and the Newport Mansions. Gertie Bomb yelled at me a couple times because I playing on the rocks and getting to close to the edge. We saw some pretty huge houses such as The Breakers which was owned by the Vanderbilt family and was their summer 'cottage'. Some of the mansions had tall fencing around them making it hard to gawk at them.

My birthday was on Tuesday. Another year older! I'm getting to be an old fart! I received a nice surprise at the aquarium. The rents ordered a beluga cake that was delivered to the aquarium for my birthday. It was delicious and had this yummy chocolate mousse type stuff in the center! It went over pretty well too with the staff and volunteers. It was a huge sheet cake and over half of it was eaten. But I think the best present I got was a good nights sleep! Up til then, I was running on little sleep and exhausted from caring for Inuk the whole weekend! So a nice 8 hour sleep felt wonderful!

I apologize for the lack of blog posting lately. Things have been crazy lately as you can tell and I just have been a little pre-occupied with other things! But now that things are beginning to become a bit more organized, I will continue to update with everything going on at the aquarium! Time for some pictures! Enjoy!

Old Lighthouse Museum -- Stonington, CT

Old Cobble Street -- Newport, RI

Beach on the Cliff Walk -- Newport, RI

The Breakers Mansion -- Newport, RI

Sitting on the Cliffs -- Newport, RI

My Birthday Cake

A to B's

Wow, its been awhile since my last post! This week has kept me super busy at work and everyday has been packed with things to do (but in a good way of course). I have almost put a month's worth in the internship and I can't believe it! This week, I have been working on A to B's with the whales. A to B's are when you send the whale to someone else in a different part of the exhibit. Once again, Inuks is fairly easy to pick up since it is similar to his point follow signals. Naku and Kelas are a bit different but I'm starting to get the hang of them.

I have been doing quite alot of solo feeds which have been going swimmingly. I get to bring out lots of fun toys to play with and I feel like I am keeping pace with the trainers as far as bucket levels go. The other day Kela was very spooked and easily startled during the day for some odd reason. When she was having a training/feeding session with one of the volunteers, she ended up swimming off for a minute. I was scheduled to have a session with her near the end of the day so I was a bit worried that she was going to do the same for me. But she ended up doing amazing! She was extremely engaged and vocal in the session and I tried to make it as fun as possible for her with props and variety in the feeding. Also the supervisor was watching me during that session and she said I have come a long way already and she can tell I am more confident and comfortable with things and was doing a great job. Sweet!

The weather here is crazy and unpredictable..much like Michigan! Monday it was like a monsoon with wind and heavy rains but it was super warm (a high of 52). Today the cold swept in bringing with it a small blizzard. Snow began to collect everywhere after it just melted away. But it looked pretty nonetheless. And tomorrow its supposed to be a high of 20. 20. My fingers may be suffer frost bite and freeze off during feeds tomorrow.

Well, this weekend looks like its going ot be a blast. My Aunt Gertie Bomb is coming up for a couple days for my birthday and we are going to check out Cape Cod!

Bridges

Saturdays always seem to be the best days of the work week. Maybe because its technically my 'Friday', but its fun to see the aquarium come to life and actually have more than 10 visitors a day! I got to visit with each of the whales during the training sessions and work on my point follows with them. I'm pretty sure I have those down to a T now! Lynn (my awesome mentor) introduced me to bridging today too. This is a hand signal (or a whistle for experienced trainers) that is given to the whales to tell them to basically stop doing a behavior because they have done it correctly and will receive a fishy reward. I got to practice bridging during my attention thresholds I have been working on with each of the whales and during point follows.

I was a little skeptical when assigned to work with Kela today. This morning she was miss grumpy gills and seemed to be having a bad morning. When I was brushing the exhibit pools, she was being aggressive towards the brush pole and jaw popping at it (which is a sign of aggression). Then later on in the morning she 'yelled' at Naku for some odd reason. But when I got to work with her one-on-one for our feeding session, she seemed perfectly fine. In fact, it was one of the best sessions I have had with her so far! She stuck around a lot longer than normal for tongue rubs which I was very happy about since shes the one its takes a while for her to warm up to newbies.

No new pictures to post this time :(