A Day at Marineland! dial-up warning
- Thread starter littlefishie
- Start date
Bloo
~ I learn something new ~ ~~~~ every day ~~~~
How did I miss these pics ?! 
Fabulous pictures - you have a most amazing job !! 
Fabulous pictures - you have a most amazing job !! 
Angry_Platy said:Thats fantastic littlefishie!! I can't wait to see the finished product!!!
Just to let you know, I was "kicked out" of sewing class in school for a few reasons :
1. Couldn't sew a straight line
2. Made a pair of shorts and sewed the back left to the front left....OOPS
3. Broke all the crayony things sharpening them
4. Put a sewing machine needle RIGHT through my finger
5. Put the needle in the sewing machine the wrong way so that it went flying out the sewing machine and broke a window
I recently inherited my grandmothers sewing machine which has one of those computer card thingies and all these weird attachments that I have no idea what to do with. I am too scared to take it out of the box let alone use it.
I'm studying home economics this year and I did it for the food, but now we've moved onto sewing... I haven't really got the hang of it yet. 
This week we made pyjama bags. I accidentally stitched mine on all four sides, then broke the Quik-Unpik as I tried to 'fix' it. I ended up converting it to a pillow. 
littlefishie, you are so lucky to work in a place like Marineland! Being surrounded by animals all day must be so much fun! Congrats.
One_Trick_Pony
Steals the show
those pics are fantastic u are indeed so lucky
littlefishie
I Harth Darth
I don't think there's any openings left in marine mammal, but if you apply at the website httpMissD said:
/www.marinelandcanada.com I'm sure they can find you something.. and then you get guest passes and we can go in a big group when Shaun comes down! To everyone else that I don't know off the forum.. lol
Thanks! It definitely is an awesome job.. I love how silly the dolphins are, Echo doesn't beg for fish when she does tricks for me, she just rolls over in the water and scoots herself down so I can give her a belly rub instead!
I love that girl, she's so amazing.It's amazing being surrounded by the animals, especially with their own individual personalities and such. One of the walruses, Smoochie, is hopelessly in love with Phil, a trainer. When she was brought to the park years ago, she adopted Phil as her surrogate 'mother', and now she follows him everywhere. She came into the lunchroom with him yesterday and tried to sit next to him on a plastic lawn chair. 400lb walrus + plastic lawn chair = bad idea. It was pretty funny though.. then they shared a banana for lunch, wrestled on the floor, and when one of the other trainers joking pushed Phil a bit, Smoochie started barking at him and glared him down from between him and Phil.
It's adorable. I love how unique they are.
Hope you don't mind me asking but how did you become qualified to get such an awesome job. Whenever I go to big aquariums like ripleys in NC (I think). I think to myself man that must be an awesome job. I'd love to go into uhuge tanks with sharks and scrub down the sides and feed them. I wanted to be a deep sea diver when I was a kid but that would be the next best thing. I would absolutely love to get a job like that so I'm just curious as to how you went about it. edit: or rather how I should go about it.
Jen
Fish Gatherer
I think she was hired for cash, but auditioned to be a jester... the joys of having connections!
Am I rembering correctly?
Am I rembering correctly?
littlefishie
I Harth Darth
Just about, canoechiq. Except I was hired with no job title, and the promise of cash position if jester didn't work out.
Okay, here's the ENTIRE deal.
To work in marine mammal, you have to be:
BUTTT Ann Trudeau, who is in charge of Human Resources, saw that I mentioned I'd been in theatre and had performed most of my life, so she asked how I was with improv, costumes, and stage makeup. Done 'em all, so she said 'Well, you're hired, but I don't know what your job is yet! Come to the second interview in two weeks. If you can impress Nic and Pete, the marine mammal supervisors, then you'll be our first female jester. If they want to stick with the guy they had last year, then we'll give you a cash position.'
I told her straight up then that if I was hired for cash I wouldn't take the job, because it was a long drive for something I could do closer to home, and that I'd rather have a job in the marine mammal department where I would have the opportunity to work with the animals and advance to a trainer in a couple years. She said there probably wouldn't be any issue with giving me the jester position, but it had to be okayed with Nic and Pete.
SO. I went to the second audition, stood on a chair in the middle of the interview room and sang the Marineland theme song [with EIGHTY frickin' people interviewing.. I felt so bad for interrupting their interviews], and then kicked over their heads to prove that I was flexible enough to handle stage work, and that a fall wouldn't hurt me like most people. I've proved that today, I did 5 stage falls with one straight into the tank.
Right after the kick they told me to start thinking about costumes, and that I was hired.
After that I went pattern shopping, picked up the pattern for the costume you see in Non-Fish Photographs. Got really exciting to come in for training and orientation.
I've been at the park training and rehearsing for about a week before the opening day, which was today. It was fanTAStic! I wrote all about it in Non-Fish Photographs, and I'm working on getting pictures of me doing the show. If I can convince Papa to let me take the camera tomorrow, I'll ask one of the sound booth guys to take pictures during the show.
Now that I'm securely working in marine mammal, it was suggested to me [since the trainers and supervisors know I want to BE a trainer eventually] that later in the season, once the dolphins are extremely comfortable with me, they'd let me go swim with them for a while in the tank between shows.
Every time I've been in the tank so far it was empty, so this would be EXTREMELY cool.
When I come back next summer, I'll either get moved over to Friendship or Arctic Cove as a Cove Guide [the special one who leads you around to meet whales], or I'll become a jester/assistant trainer, which would be another Marineland first. After a year or so as assistant trainer I can go straight to being a trainer, which would be amazing.
I know that Gary, one of the trainers right now, is only twenty years old. TWENTY! I figure he worked his first year here as an assistant trainer [they'll hire you as that right off the bat if you're qualified with the scuba license, which I wasn't] when he was 18, and was promoted to full trainer the year after.
The best way that YOU could go about it is apply there and take any position they'll give you that suits you. If their rehiring process is similar to Marineland's, when you come back the next year you can choose which department you go into if there's a position available. So say you worked in Retail or Guest Services. The year after you can say 'I'd like to go into Marine Mammal!' I don't know what job titles there are at Ripley's, but if you start maybe in the Fish House [you perpare the fish with vitamins and stuff and come home smelly at the end of the day], then you can go to assistant trainer and then trainer. It takes a couple years, but make sure you're First Aid and CPR certified, that you get a scuba license [Courses are $350CAD around here, so it's not that expensive], and then your chances are pretty good. 
If you'd like, when I get a chance I'm going to talk to Nic about my chances at being an Assistant Trainer next year, so I can pass on whatever information I get from him to you, and that might help as well. You can also try the Human Resources Person at Ripley's, which would be their hiring department. They should have all the information you need.
[And I think that's the longest post I've EVER written]
Okay, here's the ENTIRE deal.
To work in marine mammal, you have to be:
- 18
- Trained in First Aid
- Able to perform CPR
- Able to swim
- [Preferable but not necessary] Scuba certified
BUTTT Ann Trudeau, who is in charge of Human Resources, saw that I mentioned I'd been in theatre and had performed most of my life, so she asked how I was with improv, costumes, and stage makeup. Done 'em all, so she said 'Well, you're hired, but I don't know what your job is yet! Come to the second interview in two weeks. If you can impress Nic and Pete, the marine mammal supervisors, then you'll be our first female jester. If they want to stick with the guy they had last year, then we'll give you a cash position.'
I told her straight up then that if I was hired for cash I wouldn't take the job, because it was a long drive for something I could do closer to home, and that I'd rather have a job in the marine mammal department where I would have the opportunity to work with the animals and advance to a trainer in a couple years. She said there probably wouldn't be any issue with giving me the jester position, but it had to be okayed with Nic and Pete.
SO. I went to the second audition, stood on a chair in the middle of the interview room and sang the Marineland theme song [with EIGHTY frickin' people interviewing.. I felt so bad for interrupting their interviews], and then kicked over their heads to prove that I was flexible enough to handle stage work, and that a fall wouldn't hurt me like most people. I've proved that today, I did 5 stage falls with one straight into the tank.
Right after the kick they told me to start thinking about costumes, and that I was hired.
After that I went pattern shopping, picked up the pattern for the costume you see in Non-Fish Photographs. Got really exciting to come in for training and orientation.
I've been at the park training and rehearsing for about a week before the opening day, which was today. It was fanTAStic! I wrote all about it in Non-Fish Photographs, and I'm working on getting pictures of me doing the show. If I can convince Papa to let me take the camera tomorrow, I'll ask one of the sound booth guys to take pictures during the show.
Now that I'm securely working in marine mammal, it was suggested to me [since the trainers and supervisors know I want to BE a trainer eventually] that later in the season, once the dolphins are extremely comfortable with me, they'd let me go swim with them for a while in the tank between shows.
Every time I've been in the tank so far it was empty, so this would be EXTREMELY cool. When I come back next summer, I'll either get moved over to Friendship or Arctic Cove as a Cove Guide [the special one who leads you around to meet whales
], or I'll become a jester/assistant trainer, which would be another Marineland first. After a year or so as assistant trainer I can go straight to being a trainer, which would be amazing.I know that Gary, one of the trainers right now, is only twenty years old. TWENTY! I figure he worked his first year here as an assistant trainer [they'll hire you as that right off the bat if you're qualified with the scuba license, which I wasn't] when he was 18, and was promoted to full trainer the year after.
The best way that YOU could go about it is apply there and take any position they'll give you that suits you. If their rehiring process is similar to Marineland's, when you come back the next year you can choose which department you go into if there's a position available. So say you worked in Retail or Guest Services. The year after you can say 'I'd like to go into Marine Mammal!' I don't know what job titles there are at Ripley's, but if you start maybe in the Fish House [you perpare the fish with vitamins and stuff and come home smelly at the end of the day
], then you can go to assistant trainer and then trainer. It takes a couple years, but make sure you're First Aid and CPR certified, that you get a scuba license [Courses are $350CAD around here, so it's not that expensive], and then your chances are pretty good. If you'd like, when I get a chance I'm going to talk to Nic about my chances at being an Assistant Trainer next year, so I can pass on whatever information I get from him to you, and that might help as well. You can also try the Human Resources Person at Ripley's, which would be their hiring department. They should have all the information you need.
[And I think that's the longest post I've EVER written]
WOW did I cause that! I believe that's one of the longest posts that I've read. Thanks very much. I don't want to work at ripley's in particular. Any large well kept aquarium would be absolutely awesome. I can't believe that's all the requirements. I've taken like 5 courses on CPR so I might already be certified but if not one more wouldn't hurt. I can swim too I figured I'd need to major in marine biology or something(although I assume it wouldn't hurt). Thanks soo much fishie and congrats again on your awesome accomplishment.
I figured I'd need to major in marine biology or something(although I assume it wouldn't hurt). Thanks soo much fishie and congrats again on your awesome accomplishment.littlefishie
I Harth Darth
You don't NEED to major in marine bio, but it wouldn't hurt. Anything like psychology, general sciences, that type of thing is perfectly acceptable. You do need your scuba certification to be a trainer though, that's absolutely necessary. Two of the trainers did a dive today, but it wasn't for anything fun. They had to scrub algae off the bottom of the pool!
And yes, you did cause that long post.
And yes, you did cause that long post.
Michael Roth
Fishaholic
I would happily take care of him :>littlefishie said:And I feel terrible about this, because I can't remember this poor bugger's name either!
littlefishie
I Harth Darth
Haha, me too! I finally found out what he is.. he's a grey seal, named Jack. And he is actually blind, I asked.
And he is actually blind, I asked.Similar threads
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