My experiences as a volunteer for the New York Aquarium
Did you know there are 30+ penguins at the aquariums sea cliffs exhibit?
One of the funny things to me about volunteering is that I can never sleep the night before! I’m always so worried about getting enough sleep because I have such a long commute (an hour and 10 mins), that I take forever to fall asleep or keep waking up throughout the night. Despite probably only getting around 4-5 hrs of sleep versus the 7-8 that I actually wanted, I still wake up so energized and ready for the day.
This day involved a workup on two different animals and a check in on another, so the normal schedule was a little off. We still completed our morning tasks and then headed to food prep. The diet I did this time that I hadn’t done before was for the sand tigers in the holding pools. They eat whole herring, about 10 lbs worth split between the three of them if I remember correctly. I also prepared food for Artemis and Athena, the blunt-nose rays in the holding pools, which I had the chance to prepare one other time a few weeks back. They eat such a variety of food it’s always fun to prepare. If I had to pick, I think I would say my least favorite diet to prepare is the capelin for the cownoses, just because it takes me so long. However my favorite diet I’m not sure I’ve decided yet because there’s still so many I’ve either never done or have only done a couple of times.
There are two highlights from this day for me. The first is that I got to do another broadcast feed! My first one was for tank one which is where all of the tangs and other tropical fish are located. This is the feed I mentioned last week. This time I did the broadcast for tank 12. This feeding was for the crevalle jack fish, drum fish, and pinfish in the tank, but this is the Hudson canyon exhibit I wrote about previously so there’s a large variety of other animals in there as well. This is also the feed where we give the carni gel that I like making and cutting up every day. We start the feed with the gel to make sure they eat the supplement and then give them the squid, shrimp, and fish heads they really want! This particular feed helps me learn how to toggle between watching them as a whole and watching individuals or different species groups as well.
The second highlight of the day for me is that I not only got to operate the stretcher for the rays in the holding pool, but Artemis (the smaller ray) actually got in this time! However, the keeper did say Artemis seemed a little anxious and ultimately the ray left the feed early. It was really interesting to see and learn how Artemis communicated she was done eating and ready to be let out. Those rays look so much larger at the surface than they look at the bottom of the pool!
Speaking of this pool, I want to talk more about the sandbars that are in there as well. They are definitely starting to become a favorite too. Sandbar sharks are lighter (color wise) and smaller than sand tiger sharks, but are also recognizable by their dorsal fin. We have three in this pool. One male and two females, Stevie, Sass, and Beth respectively. You know what else? I can tell them all apart! So far I can only do that with the sandbars, sand tigers, and leopard sharks. Well, except for any sandbars and sand tigers that are in the other exhibits, they get fed on a day I’m not there so I haven’t officially met them yet. Either way I’m still so proud of myself!
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