Going Blue, Too: Marine Mammal Intern

Spring of 2011 found me in the middle of the Pacific, on the island of Oahu in Hawai'i. It was here that I interned at Sea Life Park Hawai'i, working with Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, California sea lions and a very unique dolphin hybrid called a wholphin.

I was called an Aloha intern, working with four other interns to learn the principles of animal behavior and marine mammal husbandry. We worked with the Aloha and Backstage trainers, getting our animals ready for interactive programs, and later we assisted in these programs as B-points and down-the-line trainers.
But at first, our role was simple- clean buckets, cut fish, sort fish, and learn the basic tenents of operant conditioning.

Scrubbing Laka's bucket

Sorting fish in the fish house with the Aloha ladies

Cutting food for baby Nalu

Opening gates for Punahele and Hi'iaka

Then we moved on to learning basic behaviors, like stationing (holding for minimal reinforcement) and helping with basic husbandry, like taking respiration rates. We also co-narrated a seven minute dolphin show for Japanese tourists. It's not easy to narrate when wild animals are the center piece of the show. If they choose not to participate, some creative stalling has to occur.

Stationing Lupita

We spent some time trying to get one of our more stubborn dolphins ready for interactive programs in our area. That meant a lot of practice, with us as guinea pigs. People bobbing in the water were a novelty to baby Nalu, but he quickly learned that we were harmless and fairly boring as well.

Deep water with Nalu

Mock guests in shallow water

Mock belly ride from Punahele

When the guests started flooding in, that's when things got interesting. We began to be B-points for programs, a place to send a dolphin while an interaction was taking place, while also watching out for any safety problems that might occur.

Lupita B-point

As time progressed, we joined the guests in the water as a place for secondary reinforcement, to assist the guests in setting up for their pictures as well as receiving the dolphins after they performed a behavior down the line of guests. We also were taught to send these types of behaviors during an encounter, and learned husbandry layouts to check for cuts and scratches.

Asking for a side layout

And then it was our turn to take the lead. With minimal assistance, we were in charge of leading a mock encounter, sending kisses, belly rides and down the line behaviors for our fellow interns. And

the arrival of two female sea lions to our area gave us a chance to learn a whole new set of SDs (discriminitive stimuli) for a new species.