Meet An Aquarist

Interviewer: How did you get into this position?

Mark: I started out working at a marine lab at the university I went to. We had seven public display aquariums and we were open for free so as a student I was able to work there and get my foot in the door on taking care of animals in a public aquarium environment. From there I kind of moved around, I went to North Carolina and I worked at an aquarium there for about a year and a half. Then I moved back to the West Coast, to Oregon, and I was there for about two years and then I [came] here in October.

I: What made you want to be an Aquarist?

M: Well, I didn’t have that dream from when I was super little where I knew I was going to do this. It came about for me when I was in community college. I was initially a business major because that’s an easy one … and I started taking some heavy business classes and I realized it was not for me, I couldn’t do it. I had a marine biology class to just fill the life sciences area and I got a 100 percent in that class. I didn’t get anything wrong and I realized I probably shouldn’t be doing business, I should be doing something I’m good at and that I really like. So I went pretty deep down a rabbit hole, and I ended up transferring to a school in Northern California. I realized that yes I do like [marine biology] and I’m good at it too, so that’s how I got into this.

I: So what’s your favorite part about your job?

M: My favorite part about the job is the lack of monotony. There’s always something new going on, there’s always things that are changing. I worked at an assembly line for a little bit to really help pay my way through college and that was coming in and doing the exact same thing. I know that there’s guys that I worked with five years ago that have been doing the exact same thing since I left. Whereas here, everything is different. Things are constantly changing, and it’s not as set in stone, not as concrete. Things are very fluid. You need to adjust food as the animal grows, you might be surprised with shark pups and you have to figure to what you have to do for these pups and what they’re going to need. Even changing up the animals that you take care of because there’s so many different animals everywhere. I’ve taken care of alligators, river otters, and cold water sharks. Now I’m taking care of a really cool Zebra shark, nurse sharks, warm water black tip reef sharks, so it’s always different.

I: That’s awesome. Do you have a favorite animal?

M: It’s not an animal we have here but I do have a favorite animal and it’s a temperate shark called a Broadnose seven gill. They have seven gill slits instead of the typical shark that has five gill slits. They’re really cool because they’re a little more primitive. So they only have a single dorsal fin whereas other sharks normally have two dorsal fins and they have really cool teeth morphology. The top row is pointed but the bottom row is really serrated. They’re these slow, dumpy looking sharks but in the wild they catch these seals and sea lions which is crazy because they just don’t move fast at all. They hunt in packs and they’ll just all of a sudden dart towards a seal or a sea lion and just take down these massive marine mammals.

I: That’s crazy. Have you seen one in real life?

M: Well I took care of nine of them at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We had eight males and one female, and she was about 300 to 320 pounds. She was a big girl.

I: Yeah, awesome. Do you have any advice for future zookeepers?

M: I do. Anyone can get experience, but you definitely need to get a foot in the door. That was definitely something that I struggled with, and I still remember that so that’s the biggest thing that’s going to help you out of you want to be a zookeeper. You have to get to know someone in the industry so you can start learning. A lot of time just taking care of a fish tank at home or taking care of exotic animals at home is not the same [as being a zookeeper]. If you’re anywhere near an aquarium or zoo start to volunteer there, get to know how that facility does it and get to know those people. You can also get an internship or get your degree. There’s a couple facilities in North America, there’s two schools right now, where you can get your degree just in Aquarium science and rather than a four year degree it’s an associates degree. So you’re only spending two years and a good majority of that is learning specifically if you know you want to work in a zoo or an aquarium.