Not Your Average 9-to-5: An Inside Look at the Life of an Aquarist

 

Imagine if the first task of your day was to feed shrimp to an octopus, unload a truckload of live sardines, or don a wetsuit and swim with sharks. Welcome to the workaday world of our aquarists, whose lives are as varied as the bay itself.

Kevin Lewand, whose title is simply “collector,” has been at the Monterey Bay Aquarium since 2002. As with many of our husbandry staff, salt water seems to run in Kevin’s veins. “I’m a California boy,” he says. “I’ve always loved surfing and diving.”

His career goal, however, never involved working at an aquarium. Instead, he wanted to be a doctor. But along the way he got a degree in marine sciences and took a temporary job as a guide and a diver at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco. While there, he took a trip to the Farallon Islands, where he had the opportunity to dive with sharks. It opened his eyes to a whole new world. “I had never dove with sharks before,” he says. Suddenly, becoming a doctor didn’t seem so important.

“Once I started to get into aquariums, it hit me. I just loved it. I’d always been around the ocean, and the idea of working and getting paid to be near the water was a perfect fit.”

An Accurate Picture of the Bay

What really motivates Kevin is the idea of displaying animals that have never been shown before. “We’re always looking at what species are not represented,” he says. “Then we ask ourselves: ‘Why aren’t they there?’ We try to take on those challenges.”

One such example, of course, is our White Shark Project. The Aquarium is unique among institutions worldwide in being able to successfully display great white sharks and, along the way, convey important messages about the threats they face in the wild. “I’ve always felt passionate about sharks,” says Kevin,

But for Kevin and the rest of the husbandry staff, it’s not just about the challenge of displaying unique species—they’re also trying to educate people about their preservation. “We’re always looking at animals that are hard to display, and that are important to conservation issues,” says Kevin. “If people can see these animals, maybe they’ll understand how important it is to preserve them.”

Daily Surprises

When you work in husbandry at the Aquarium,  every day holds a surprise. While out doing research in the bay, Kevin’s had whales breach so close to the boat he thought they were coming aboard. Once, an enormous steller sea lion stared him down on a dive, eyeball to eyeball. 

But one incident stands out above the rest. While on a night dive with Joe Welsh, associate curator of collecting, a sea otter decided to engage in a tug of war over a flashlight. Having won the battle, the otter swam away, then turned and shined the light back, as if to give the two divers a dose of their own medicine. But the otter wasn’t done yet.  “All of a sudden,” says Kevin, “he returned and gave the flashlight back to us.”

As with any job, some tasks are less than glamorous. Gear must be assembled and inspected, boats and trucks made ready, and the necessary permits and paperwork completed prior to every trip. A plan may need to be filed with the Aquarium’s dive safety officer, and other staff may need to be scheduled for heavy work and transport tasks. Often, says Kevin, preparation takes more time than the actual collection. And afterward, there’s a lot of cleanup. “It’s like when you’re a kid,” says Kevin. “You need to clean up your toys. We have to rinse our gear and make sure everything is in order for next time. The salt water environment is incredibly corrosive. Cleaning is a necessary evil. It’s part of the profession.”

 “A Wealth of Knowledge”

Kevin is continually amazed at the professionalism he encounters every day on the job. “I don’t think people realize how good the staff is here at the Aquarium,” he says. I have so much reverence for the people here and what they’re able to accomplish—not just husbandry, but also our exhibits staff, public relations, marketing, our craftsmen and every other department. The displays, the exhibit labels, and every step in the process—people really strive to present things in the best way possible.

“I also believe in what [Executive Director] Julie Packard and her father did in creating the Aquarium. David was an engineer, and his philosophy was that anything can be done. And Julie is about our mission. So we’re always trying to do things no one else has done before, while striving to inspire conservation of the oceans.

“We don’t fake it—we really act on it.”

(Watch a video of Kevin feeding sharks underwater in the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit.)

Comments

[DJ]

I have yet to swim with sharks, but it has to be super exciting...if not a little scary. I'm completely out of my element in the water.

DJ

[shane slaughter]

Sounds like a dream job. Who wouldn't want to dive and collect things for a living. No wonder he never left!
Shane
http://www.islander-charters.com/shark-diving/shark-diving-home.shtml

[upvc windows]

It is good to see someone who has found their calling in life, well done.
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[nicole]

Is Pat Wade working there?
Will you tell him Nicole Goodwin from Cambria says hello and "tel me a story"!!
Thanks!