Sharky Action
As of tonight, I've officially got 21:04 volunteer hours under my belt. By the end of the week, I'll be qualified to interview for a husbandry and/or dive volunteer slot. Tonight, I got another 3 hours in by attending the Ocean Voyager training session, so I'll now be able to help out and present that gallery. That's the really big gallery with the whale sharks and various other sharks and rays in it, so this is understandably my favorite area of the aquarium. Even though I already knew pretty much most of what we covered tonight, it was still a fun and engaging training session... but I had no idea that I'd wind up bearing witness to not one but TWO aquatic rarities.
Tonight, I saw two young blacktip reef sharks MATING. Yes, mating. Two sharks full out going at it. The first stage of the reproductive cycle. Regardless of the species of shark (save the lemon shark for some documentation and photologs), it is insanely rare to hear about much less SEE them mate. Some of the behavior for it is known, but the actual act is hard to catch. But I got to see it tonight... and I was downright giddy. Call me crazy, but I got to see one of the hardest to catch feats of nature unfold RIGHT in front of me. And this marine biologist was freaking ecstatic.
As part of our gallery training, we went through the entire exhibit, checking out all of the windows and watching the fish swim by. When we stopped in the Oceans Ballroom and stayed there for a while... we saw the whale sharks swim super close, the great hammerhead get up by the acrylic, and even Nandi the manta ray hang out around us. At one point, one young blacktip sped into another, biting around her gill slits and forcing her into a submission pose... at first, I could only see their backs, so as the resident shark expert of the group, I figured it was a dominance display. Well, it could have been... but then they turned around. This was a young male using one of his claspers on a female of roughly the same age. Tonic immobility induced, the deed done, and the two sharks sinking to the bottom for several minutes. Forgive me if it sounds crazy for geeking out over this, but seriously, this was just... incredible to see.
As the two sharks recovered, some of the rays and guitarfish swam into them, nudging them as if to gauge their condition. Eventually, the two sharks regained buoyancy and resumed swimming as if nothing had happened, but while the female swam off, the male met up with the great hammerhead who had come to investigate. I'm not sure if it was the excess of hormones or if the act had aggravated the hammerhead, but he went berserk. Seriously, the normally calm great hammerhead was biting at the blacktip reef and soon speedily chasing him around this area of the tank, even RIGHT UP against the acrylic in front of us. Hammerheads are one of if not my favorite species of shark, so even though he was chasing another, smaller shark, this was still pretty incredible.
So yeah... this marine biologist and shark enthusiast was pretty excited tonight. XD Part of me REALLY wished I'd had my camera on me, but knowing the way these things go, if I'd had it, I wouldn't have seen either of these amazing events. More than just those two though, all of the sharks were just showing off tonight as we went through the gallery, even the wobbegongs. Granted, it was night when we were there, so it was only natural that the nocturnal wobbegongs were out and about, bit it was still really cool to see them up close and active. But yeah... I'll admit that I can't wait to hopefully get employed there at some point, but I'm already a part of the team... and I'm loving pretty much every minute of this. It's just... amazing.
I've got another training course tomorrow and a volunteer shift, and my commissary meeting with one of the vet nutritionists is in between that. Here's hoping that goes well... I'll post about it once I'm back in for the day. I know that the aquarium has overridden my entries for the past few, but just getting this level of involvement regardless of not having been hired yet is a dream come true, and it's looking to hopefully be getting even better.
Tonight, I saw two young blacktip reef sharks MATING. Yes, mating. Two sharks full out going at it. The first stage of the reproductive cycle. Regardless of the species of shark (save the lemon shark for some documentation and photologs), it is insanely rare to hear about much less SEE them mate. Some of the behavior for it is known, but the actual act is hard to catch. But I got to see it tonight... and I was downright giddy. Call me crazy, but I got to see one of the hardest to catch feats of nature unfold RIGHT in front of me. And this marine biologist was freaking ecstatic.
As part of our gallery training, we went through the entire exhibit, checking out all of the windows and watching the fish swim by. When we stopped in the Oceans Ballroom and stayed there for a while... we saw the whale sharks swim super close, the great hammerhead get up by the acrylic, and even Nandi the manta ray hang out around us. At one point, one young blacktip sped into another, biting around her gill slits and forcing her into a submission pose... at first, I could only see their backs, so as the resident shark expert of the group, I figured it was a dominance display. Well, it could have been... but then they turned around. This was a young male using one of his claspers on a female of roughly the same age. Tonic immobility induced, the deed done, and the two sharks sinking to the bottom for several minutes. Forgive me if it sounds crazy for geeking out over this, but seriously, this was just... incredible to see.
As the two sharks recovered, some of the rays and guitarfish swam into them, nudging them as if to gauge their condition. Eventually, the two sharks regained buoyancy and resumed swimming as if nothing had happened, but while the female swam off, the male met up with the great hammerhead who had come to investigate. I'm not sure if it was the excess of hormones or if the act had aggravated the hammerhead, but he went berserk. Seriously, the normally calm great hammerhead was biting at the blacktip reef and soon speedily chasing him around this area of the tank, even RIGHT UP against the acrylic in front of us. Hammerheads are one of if not my favorite species of shark, so even though he was chasing another, smaller shark, this was still pretty incredible.
So yeah... this marine biologist and shark enthusiast was pretty excited tonight. XD Part of me REALLY wished I'd had my camera on me, but knowing the way these things go, if I'd had it, I wouldn't have seen either of these amazing events. More than just those two though, all of the sharks were just showing off tonight as we went through the gallery, even the wobbegongs. Granted, it was night when we were there, so it was only natural that the nocturnal wobbegongs were out and about, bit it was still really cool to see them up close and active. But yeah... I'll admit that I can't wait to hopefully get employed there at some point, but I'm already a part of the team... and I'm loving pretty much every minute of this. It's just... amazing.
I've got another training course tomorrow and a volunteer shift, and my commissary meeting with one of the vet nutritionists is in between that. Here's hoping that goes well... I'll post about it once I'm back in for the day. I know that the aquarium has overridden my entries for the past few, but just getting this level of involvement regardless of not having been hired yet is a dream come true, and it's looking to hopefully be getting even better.