I saw an evolution in a lot of different areas. I saw an evolution in terms of our ability to do more conservation and more research and more education. I saw the ability of the animal activist extremists to start creating a picture of doom and gloom, and we do… Read More
We’re part of public education. We’re part of conservation.” And that movement was getting stronger and stronger, you know, because it was started with the farm animals and animals in entertainment and animals in Hollywood. And it was drifting towards zoos and aquariums, especially on dolphins and whales. And a… Read More
Are you really traveling a lot during this time as directors of zoological operations?… Read More
I’m traveling all the time as zoological director, to all of the parks. We have meetings. We have a yearly meeting where all our zoo professionals come together, and we have meetings with our educators and a meeting with our veterinarians and I travel around the world to different facilities. Read More
What type of evolution did the parks take?… Read More
‘Cause you started a while back, and now it’s 2008 and you’re director of zoo operations. Read More
They didn’t care about the animals or?… Read More
Well, the InBev folks, their interests were not in the animals of the parks. They were a beer company. We’d have meetings with them and chat with them, and they’d go, “That’s nice. Stick to the budget. Do well, and we’ll see what happens in the future.” So you could… Read More
And everything worked out just fine until, finally, as most equity banking companies do, they do an IPO and you go public again. And that’s when we ended up with public people buying stock and people coming on the board. And then it got a lot more complicated. Read More
And we became a private company. Read More
Can you give me an example, just ’cause you said it, of not very much fun?… Read More
It seems like a big deal. And I think the aquarium community has embraced this. In fact, the marine mammal, excuse me, the marine fish tag that was just held in Indianapolis two weeks ago or three weeks ago, they praised the Rising Tide program. And they’re all involved, everybody’s… Read More
So the old user term is no longer there. It’s becoming more of a sustainable aquarium for the future. You’re owned by Busch Entertainment. In 2009, Busch Entertainment is sold to Blackstone Groups and renamed SeaWorld Entertainment. Read More
Again, just another change in ownership?… Read More
Does this affect- Actually Anheuser-Busch sold to a company called InBev, which was a beer company, a large beverage company out of Europe. They bought the Anheuser-Busch breweries, the brand, and the parks came with it. So there was about a year in there that we worked for InBev. That… Read More
And Dr. Judy St. Leger, who was a veterinarian and a pathologist within our group, basically asked me, she said, “So you really wanna do this, don’t you?” And I said, “Absolutely, why can’t we raise fish?… Read More
It seems like we can raise everything else.” So we started this program and we got aquariums around North America to put special skimmer nets in their skimmer baskets. And, most of the time, the spawning goes on late at night in the different big, large aquariums with the many… Read More
And their food source changes at different intervals. And we didn’t know what species they were until they got to certain stages. So these guys are unlocking the nuts and the bolts of each one of these different egg… We don’t know what the eggs are when they show up,… Read More
Is this information getting out to people, that this kind of program or programs that, obviously, many aquariums are participating in?… Read More
Did you have other conservation or research things that you said, “And that way I can be the champion of it now that I’m in this position”?… Read More