Actually, part of the keeping department actually was assigned to do that. So we had rescue trucks that would go out and pick up the animals. And we had a network with a coordination of lifeguards and a stranding network with National Marine Fishery Service. So there was a good… Read More
And then they’d come to Marineland to see their animals, if they lived. Of course, if they didn’t live, we would call them up and tell them, “This animal didn’t live, and here’s why.” What we found, and I’ve had the experience, the necropsy, or autopsy, hundreds of marine animals… Read More
And Murray was a marine mammal parasitologist. And once I met him and realized what the work he was doing, I said, “Well, let’s discover the life cycle of some of these other worms. Let’s figure out where they’re coming from.” So we would actually do that. We’d collect the… Read More
Looking back on those times at Marineland, what’s your fondest memory?… Read More
What makes you the proudest of your time there?… Read More
I think my fondest memory at Marineland was the people I worked with and the success we had in sustainability. And we had sea lion pups and walrus pups and harbor seal pups and dolphin babies and dolphin calves. That, and the fact that we really, I think, perfected the… Read More
So I think being able to share those joys and those ideas with our staff and the kids, our staff love to talk to them. And it was also fun to talk to adults, even though sometimes they didn’t listen much. Strandings happen at different times of the day and… Read More
I just wanted to see what they were talking about so I could understand how they were describing what they were looking at. Because sometimes, as you know, people will say, “Well, the animal is looking funny today because it’s doing this (coughs).” And you go, “Oh, okay, well, let’s… Read More
What do you think?” So that relationship building was very important so that we could be in sync and make sure that we were sort of checking with each other, “Why?… Read More
Okay, good. Are you sure?… Read More
Should we do this?” Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s do that too.” So it helped me with that relationship because, really, the size of the number of species and number of specimens in the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens park was really the biggest in the world. Read More
Now, I asked this question of a number of people, but how important was it for you as a manager to make your rounds daily, or did you?… Read More
Oh, absolutely. I made rounds every day. I walked and I’d look at back areas. I’d look at exhibits, I’d watch the animals. I’d look at their food charts that were stored in different areas. I’d go visit my old friends in the fish house. And I’d even put my… Read More
But you did it at night, your choice, the company’s choice?… Read More
Because you felt that it would be- It was done at night simply because we didn’t want traffic on the road, (chuckles) plain and simply. Even though we had a police escort, we just didn’t wanna get caught on the San Diego Freeway in the middle of the afternoon. And… Read More
Do you think the sale to SeaWorld, as you mentioned was a little controversial, but do you think if it hadn’t occurred, would Marineland have survived or?… Read More
I think if that particular transition hadn’t have happened with HBJ coming in and buying the park and then ultimately closing it, I don’t think that was their choice in the very beginning. I think they just reached that business decision as it went on, Marineland would’ve closed. It would’ve… Read More
“Why are we doing that? Why are we doing that?” But I was integral in terms of the coordinating everybody, the players, who’s in the water, who’s on the stretcher, who’s doing what, who knows Corky the best, who knows Orky the best?… Read More
You know, we basically just trained them and they walked them right in the stretchers in semi-deep water. And plenty of water for the animals, but we just got the stretchers under them and had them swim through them and stop, target, reinforce them, lift them up. And they craned… Read More
And you just do the opposite, take them out, put the stretcher in the water, unfold the sides, and they swim out. And from that point, I met people like Jim Antrim and Don Goldsberry and Lanny Cornell and people like that and learned a lot about that. And from… Read More