Well, as an associate curator, you would have more animals that you were responsible for and more keepers. So it was divided up, again, into the aquarium department, the animal keeping department and the animal trainers. And so the associate curator of the animal keeping department would be all of… Read More
And I was a hands-on curator. I didn’t wanna step away from that work at all, but I didn’t wanna take their job, because everyone had to do it in a way. And people had to have days off, but we all had to know how to help each other. Read More
Do you think that the keeper staff identified more with you because they know you had done it, you had been in their shoes?… Read More
Absolutely, I think being the fish guy and doing all that work and learning from them and asking them questions and learning the daily processes and not assuming that I knew everything. And I approached it just that way. I would ask questions all the time. And I kind of… Read More
Yeah, that’s a great question. Certainly. I mean, when you graduate or get promoted in this business and you stop working with the animals, I think you dearly miss it, ’cause then you have to start dealing with people. And people talk and people have opinions, which is fine, but… Read More
And working with people was a lot harder. (indistinct) signed contract right here. You’re promoted, all right. So now, as you say, you raise your hand. You’re promoted to associate curator. There was an opening, obviously. Read More
There was an opening and then, yeah, I raised my hand said, “I can do that.” And they go, “Okay.” What new responsibilities now did you have that you didn’t have before as associate curator?… Read More
That’s right, and then I went into the management structure of the different areas. Read More
And each time that would open up, people would say, they’d say, “Are you gonna interview for that job?” And I go, “Well, certainly.” And I would go in and just say, “I would really like to have that job.” And they’d say, “Well, what makes you think you can… Read More
(chuckles) How do you do it?'” And they thought, “Well, that’s a humble approach to it. Well, okay.” So I never interviewed really for a job. I just got moved from one to another. And I just raised my hand said, “I’ll do that.” And they said, okay, “You’ll do… Read More
My last one, an animal keeper is, after time doing that, at times, do you miss the days when you were just there with your walruses?… Read More
And I thought, “Well.” So we got down, we went down to the pier, got the boat and got a surfboard and we tried to approach it with a boat. And that wasn’t working, ’cause the bird would just fly off and move down further away. Finally, I got on… Read More
So you are working at Marineland from 1972 to 1977 and, during that time, you’re a full-fledged animal keeper?… Read More
Actually, yeah, I was an animal keeper and then I was an assistant curator and then the general curator. So, really, it was 15 years. It was ’72 to ’86. Read More
But that one stint was your keeper experience?… Read More
And did you have experiences with them?… Read More
Yeah, all the time. Bill Walker was the general curator. He had studied mammalogy, and he was really fascinated by all of the stranding. He started actually started the Stranding Network in Southern California. Jerry Goldsmith was the curator of fishes, and Jerry went on to work at SeaWorld also. Read More
What were some of your adventures with your charges that you think about or (indistinct)?… Read More
There was a lot of different experiences. And, you know, I should write a book one day, but it would be fun. I can remember different experiences when somebody would say, “Hey, listen the walruses are giving,” you know, like, “The walrus is having its pup now.” So we’d drain… Read More
What were the- The structure there at that time was like, you know, the lowest person was the fish house guy, and that was me. And then there was keepers and trainers and aquarists. There was three different categories. And then there was a curator of each division and then… Read More