And I’m like, no, no, no, no, no, we’re okay. We’re okay. We got the RCMP here. But he was very willing to make sure these people didn’t disrupt our operation. So kind of interesting, you know, just a different world. Now in 1995 you get another promotion to director… Read More
Again, how does this promotion happen?… Read More
We also had, as I said previously, kind of the wild west mentality when you’re up there. We had one guy with several teeth knocked out. Read More
And did you also then similarly have to deal with groups that were opposed to this?… Read More
I’m not sure if he was a hockey player or whatever, but he’d come over here, Hey, you want us to take care of these guys for you?… Read More
Not up there so much. There was, I think, I’m not sure how many, I know one guy was, he had actually put on a train, a small boat and an outboard motor. And he was going to again, try and get between us and the whales and disrupt our… Read More
So we might target an animal like that and we would go alongside. And then the Inuit had to be the first one to jump out of the boat and try and reach over and grab the pectoral fins of the whale. And right after that person’s in the air,… Read More
It had holes for the pectoral fins and then with a number of guys just lift it out of the water, not to one of the canoes, bring it into shore and then put it in their temporary holding tanks. And then when the time came, pulling them from the… Read More
We don’t know the impact of your taking these penguin eggs. I’m like, legitimate. But we’re looking for, I think it was 50 eggs and they’ve got thousands of penguin colonies in, you know, penguins in colonies. So it was kind of like, ah. So that didn’t work out. The,… Read More
Sure. We would work with a group called the Nanook Enterprises, which had been working with the aquarium community and I think primarily Europe, United States, maybe Hong Kong. And they could take whales as part of their subsistence hunt. So whether they want to eat ’em or they could… Read More
Can you talk about that experience and what was involved?… Read More
The, the other really fun travel opportunity for me, I went to Canada many times, but was working with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans where they would do beluga research. And that often meant temporarily collecting and holding animals in affixing a radio transmitter to their dorsal ridge… Read More
Well, you know, certainly going to meetings and international meetings, going to Hong Kong for instance, you know, for a meeting. I’m like, wow, I never thought this would happen. I, other than that it was going for primarily animal acquisition or seeking permission for animal acquisition. For instance, we… Read More
Was it to learn about exhibitry or it, what was your travel involving?… Read More
So did the aquarium have a master plan or was it just in the director’s mind?… Read More
I think it probably just in the director’s mind with the oceanarium, you know, once he shared it, it became a, a bigger plan. His successor did roll out, let’s develop a master plan in a more formal way, which I was not a great enthusiast of the process, but… Read More
I took it upon myself to like, do your best job to keep this department running smoothly. ’cause everybody’s looking to you. You’re the guy, you know, if something goes wrong, it’s gonna come back to you. So I had no qualms, especially after I got to know the marine… Read More
Yeah. Other than that, some fun stuff. Volunteer divers that would be vacuuming the bottom of the 2 million gallon pool. Occasionally, if they were experienced divers and we felt confident they’re not gonna goof around with the animals, we’d let the beluga whales in with them. And the belugas… Read More
No, no losses or animals escaping that way. So Did you enjoy being an administrator now?… Read More
Yes and no. No, because it took me further from actual hands on work with the animals. You know, even as curator you still get in there if it’s a big thing, all, all hands on deck, you get to be part of it. But as you get further up… Read More