This is an essay I wrote about my experience at advanced career camp at Sea World San Antonio, Texas.

I had fun at advanced career camp at Sea World San Antonio. It exceeded my expectations. It was much better than career camp last year. I made new friends and experienced how much fun, hard work, and dedication it takes to take care of Sea World’s animals. During camp, I lived at Sea World in a dorm with other girls and counselors. Waking up early to prepare fish for the animals and having fun and learning something interesting is what every day spent in an animal area consisted of.
The first full day of camp was Aquarium day. My group of nine campers including me went behind the scenes in the Aquarium and other parts of the park where aquarists work. The first activity in the morning before the park opened was seigning in ski lake, where the ski show is. Dressed in swim shoes and my swimsuit with my camp shirt covering it tucked into my shorts, I and my fellow campers pile into the camp van, which took us to different areas during camp, and Brandi, one of the counselors drove us to ski lake. When we arrive near ski lake, we take our camp shirt and shorts off. We put life jackets on. A counselor, Tommy lifeguards us on land. Then walk down to ski lake. The water was waist deep. Carefully, not to slip, I walk in the lake to the area where we seigned for fish. Brandi tells us what to do. She pulls out a net and unrolls it and asks two campers to hold the sides of the net. I stood along with the rest of the campers away from the net, waiting until the counselor told us to go. When she said, “GO,” we splashed to scare the fish in the lake into the net. We did this a couple times. If we caught fish in the net, we examined them, then released them back into the lake. It was my first time seigning and was an interesting experience. Another activity on Aquarium day was feeding the sharks. We went behind the scenes on top of the shark tank and fed the sharks. I fed the sharks in career camp, so I knew what to expect. When It was my turn, I took the pole, grabbed a fish out of the fish bucket, and the aquarist directed me what shark to feed. If a shark swam by, I put the pole with the fish on the end of it in the water and released the fish from the pole when I felt the shark chomp on the pole. I fed the sharks a couple times. That day, we watched the piranhas in the aquarium get fed. It was interesting, my first time watching piranhas get fed. It was a feeding frenzy. The piranhas moved fast, attacking the food. Later in the day, we went to Alligator Alley, the alligator exhibit in the park, and fed the alligators alligator biscuits, which are hard, similar to dog biscuits. We took turns throwing them at the alligators. The alligators moved and opened their mouths and chomped down on the biscuits. Another activity was a stingray interaction program. We were the first campers to try it out. We were in wetsuits in water with the stingrays , feeding them. The stingrays glided by and sucked the food. I touched the stingrays as they glided by. After feeding the stingrays, we snorkeled with them. As I was snorkeling, a stingray swam under me. Also, a stingray came up to me and sucked on me. Even though I like marine mammals more than fish, it was an interesting experience.
The second full day of camp was visiting the animal ambassador team animals and Shamu stadium day. We visited the animal ambassador team animals before Shamu. The animal ambassador team are animals and their keepers that travel around the country, educating people about animals, not marine mammals. We cleaned the animal ambassador teams’ animal enclosures. We each had a different job to do. Some people picked up wallaby poop. I and another girl were assigned to clean the owl enclosures. The keeper put the owls in a crate. I wasn’t too enthusiastic to clean the owl enclosure. I’d rather prepare fish for dolphins. There was owl poop and that had to be scrubbed off, lettuce to be picked up. It eventually got done. After cleaning, we held a wallaby in a pouch. I also held a snake and an alligator. We took Tank, a six banded armadillo on a walk, more like run. He moved fast and we chased after him. We also met their two lemurs. We went on the grass and waited for the keepers with the lemurs on a leash. I had a lemur in my lap. It felt fuzzy and its paws were soft as it walked over my lap onto the next camper. The keepers told me I was more skittish than the lemurs. I was scared of the lemurs. I didn’t want them climbing all over me. I was happy to leave the animal ambassador team and go to Shamu stadium. Orcas are so much cooler, more awesome, amazing and better than any of the animal ambassador animals. The orca is my favorite animal. I wasn’t sure what to expect at Shamu stadium. When we arrived at Shamu stadium, it was closed to the public. We sat at the top of the stadium, going over our review packets. Takara, one of the orcas, was in the show pool. The water spray jets were on. Takara popped her tail out of the water and put it on the spray jets. It turned out, it was better than I expected. When we arrived in the back area, Todd, one of the orca trainers was there, wearing rubber gloves. Gavin, the counselor, told us the fence, the boundary between us and the orcas, was electric and not to touch it. It was not, he told us that so we would stay away. Todd told us, “I’m not wearing these rubber gloves for nothing.” Todd told us we had a better photo opportunity than last year because we were right next to the mouth of a killer whale and get to hug one. When I heard that, I was so happy, one of my dreams was about to come true. When it came time to hug Keet the killer whale, the trainer told us to put our arms in a circle and Keet would come up to us. When it was my turn, I kneeled on the ledge and put my arms in a circle and Keet gently came up to me. It amazes me how these animals are dangerous yet gentle. I felt his melon, the top of his head. From my experience, orcas feel exactly like bottlenose dolphins. Hugging Keet inspired me to become an orca trainer. I knew from that moment this was something I wanted to do, my dream job. My second favorite activity was playtime with the orcas. A trainer handed us huge stuffed animals. We waved the stuffed animals in front of Keet. Keet opened his mouth. We went down to the show pool close to the glass, waving stuffed animals in front of Takara. Unna came by to check us out. Then we went to one of the back pools and waved the stuffed animals in front of Ky and Tuar. Ky and Tuar opened their mouths. We watched the Shamu show in front row seats in front of the slideout. It was cool when the whale slid out. It was so close. Keet soaked us. The trainer gave Keet the signal to splash. When Keet splashed, it felt like a waterfall on top of me. He can splash powerfully. That day was full of fun and excitement. I left Shamu stadium, thankful I hugged an orca and for playtime with the orcas.
The third full day of camp was Animal Care day, spending time in the animal care areas and at Beluga Stadium with the belugas and pacific white sided dolphins. The fun activities that day were feeding dolphins, posing with a dolphin, a dolphin dunk, a pec shake with a pacfic white sided dolphin, and the beluga interaction program. We fed dolphins at Dolphin Cove and in the back area. I posed with a dolphin named Scotia. Scotia slid out and I sat on the ledge and pet him. After I posed with him, I tossed him fish. During the dolphin dunk, we were in the medical pool. The dolphins were on both sides of the gates. Two of the dolphins were vocal. I could hear them underwater. It was so cool. Later in the day behind the scenes of beluga stadium, I pet a pacific white sided dolphin for the first time. I asked Betty the dolphin for a pec shake. I gave her the signal and I reached out and grabbed her pectoral fin. Shedd Aquarium has pacific white sided dolphins. I visited there many times, but never touched a pacific white sided dolphin. That day I also participated in Sea World San Antonio’s beluga interaction program. I stood on a ledge in water with the belugas. The belugas I met were Whisper and Luna. Luna kissed me on the cheek. I laid back and held on to Luna’s pectoral fin and Luna laid back. I kicked my feet and Luna kicked her tail. I felt like I was in the show. When I fed Luna a fish, I put the fish underwater and Luna would suck it. We didn’t spend that much time in water with the belugas. I wish we spent more time with them. The day was full of adventure.
The fourth full day of camp, and last full day of camp was polar (Penguin) day and sea lion and otter stadium day. We shoveled snow and spread it throughout the penguin exhibit. We went into the penguin exhibit and fed the penguins and kept track of which penguin got fed. We split into groups of three when we did this. One person in each group fed a penguin, one person held the fish bucket, the other person held the clipboard and crossed off which penguin on the list was fed. My job was to see which penguin was fed. It was hard reading the penguin’s id tags because it was dark in the exhibit. King penguins flapped their wings banging on my legs, wanting to be fed. When our jobs were done, we went outside the penguin exhibit behind the scenes. We sat on the floor. The penguin keepers brought two king penguin chicks out. They smell bad. I touched one. They feel fluffy. One of the penguin chicks sneezed in a camper’s face. He told me it was disgusting and he could taste it. We changed into our wetsuits and went into penguin water. I stood on a ledge in penguin water for a little bit, which was cold 44 degrees farhenheit. Later in the day, we went behind the scenes of sea lion and otter stadium. I met Illiyak, a 32 year old blind walrus with part of a tusk sticking out of his head. I pet him. We watched Illiyak perform walrus sit ups. I gave Illiyak a rubdown. Illiyak has since passed on. I did a walrus dunk, where we got in the pool, one of the walruses, Takena was on the other side of the gate. The trainer let me come up near the gate and handed me 2 fish, which Takena the walrus sucked in underwater. Then I dove underwater and looked at her from underwater. It was fun. Ola the monk seal watched us on the other side of the other gate. The counselor stood at the boundary. We had to stay 3 feet away from the gate where the monk seal was. The walrus dunk was a fun activity to conclude my last day at Sea World camp.
Advanced Sea World career camp was fun. I had the best week of my life, living at Sea World spending time with friends and my favorite animals. I had a blast. It was an amazing experience I will never forget.