WEBVTT

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What if your classroom could hold 10

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million gallons of water? Today, we're

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diving in at the Georgia Aquarium, the

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largest aquarium in the Western

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Hemisphere, where whale sharks roam,

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science comes alive, and there are some

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seriously cool careers lurking beneath

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the surface. Buckle up, cuz the next 10

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minutes, we're going all in. Since

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opening in 2005, the Georgia Aquarium

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has grown into one of the world's

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largest collections of sea life. From

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microscopic corals to massive whale

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sharks, hundreds of marine and

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freshwater species call this aquarium

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home. So, what does it take to keep a

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place like this running or swimming

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successfully? Well, allow us to

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introduce you to an incredibly diverse

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team of professionals that include

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scientists, biologists, engineers,

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trainers, and an ocean of other cool

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careers. And some that you, and

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honestly, myself included, didn't even

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know existed. Exhibit A. Meet Kimberly

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Craft. Official title, Aquarist. But

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I've decided she is the queen of coral

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conservation.

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>> How did you come to be an aquarist? I

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have a degree in biology and I didn't

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really know where I wanted to go. So I

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in the career of biology you can go in

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many different directions. You can go

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into research, you can go into aquarium,

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you can also go into training. Um and I

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did just about every single one of those

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to get to where I am today. So luckily I

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was able to internship here. Um, and

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then during my internship, I was offered

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a job and I've been here for about 8

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years.

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>> Do you have a favorite coral?

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>> Oh my gosh, yes, I do.

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>> Which one?

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>> Um, so it is over here. If you'd like to

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come over to this guy right here, it is

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called a micro muso. They can get really

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fluffy. And you can actually see their

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tentacles out right now ready for a

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feed.

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>> If I remember correctly, you said I

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could feed the coral.

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>> You can.

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>> Can I feed the coral?

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>> Yes, you can. Let's do this.

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>> Okay.

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>> All right. Here we go. What would your

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advice be to anyone out there who thinks

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that looks really cool. I want to work

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at an aquarium someday.

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>> My advice would probably be to keep

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going. Um it was always a thing that I

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got from a lot of people is saying that

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it was really hard to get into and it is

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but it's really rewarding. So just do as

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many volunteer opportunities you can do

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um internships

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and eventually you'll get there.

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So, this is our big reef wall. It is

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about 164,000 gallons, and it gets dove

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six days out of the week.

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>> Oh my.

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>> Um, staff divers get in about three

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times a week, and I'm fortunate enough

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to be one of those divers. Um, so I do

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dive regularly in here. Um, and what my

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tasks are mainly is taking care of the

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corals that you see

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um, down in along this reach wall. I'm

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always learning. Um, I'm always problem

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solving with these guys. Um, and those

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are great skills to have as an aquarist.

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On September 1st, a coalition of

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accredited aquariums joined together to

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rescue 30 beluga whales from an

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amusement park in Canada. Some of them

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were already bonded from their time at

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the park. So, there was a big effort to

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keep bonded pairs together.

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That includes Baylor and Zephyr, who

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would soon find their new home with the

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Georgia Aquariums Beluga Group. But

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getting two whales from Canada to

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Atlanta was no small task. Weighing more

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than 1,000 lbs each, the whales were

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carefully lifted from their pool in a

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custom stretcher and placed into

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specially designed transport tanks

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filled with water. The transport unit

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was then carefully loaded onto a

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chartered cargo plane where

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veterinarians and animal care experts

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traveled alongside them, monitoring the

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whales throughout the journey. After

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landing in Atlanta, the stretchers were

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used to once again place the whales into

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a giant freight elevator where they were

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carefully lowered into the care of the

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experts we are meeting today.

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Alise Stit and Melissa Painter are two

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of the 14 people who are constantly on

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call to keep some of the aquarium's

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largest animals healthy, happy, and fed.

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>> How do you keep all these hundreds of

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species happy?

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>> It takes 14 people um 7 days a week

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throughout the entire day from the time

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we get here at 6:30 to the time we

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leave. Um we're just constantly doing

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training sessions, doing different

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feeds, doing welfare assessments, doing

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observations. So, it's a very large

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habitat and once an animal joins the

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Ocean Voyager population, um, they have

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6 million gallons of water and there's

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30 ft deep over here and 20 ft deep over

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here. So, if we want to be able to

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consistently access that animal for

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annual exams and welfare checkups, we

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have to train them to come to certain

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areas to us for us to be able to get a

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better look at them. Um, so that not

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only involves training the animals, but

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training the staff on how to train the

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animals. So it can be a really long

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investment, but we believe in it.

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>> What is all of your advice to all of

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those out there who say, you know what,

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I want to go work for her someday. I

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want to do that.

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>> Yeah. Um, well, I heard a quote when I

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was younger and it changed the

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trajectory of my whole life and it is,

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you can't fail if you don't stop trying.

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So, even if you're trying and it doesn't

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work out, it's not a failure until

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you've stopped attempting. So, you just

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keep going. Um, there are so many

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roadblocks that you're going to hit

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along the way with any career you're

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going to go into. Um, and just keep

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going if you're passionate about it.

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>> So, just go ahead and you can just kneel

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right here.

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>> Get on my knees.

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>> Yep.

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>> Now that I've heard a little bit about

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how these aquarists landed these

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careers, it's time for me to get my

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hands dirty and my feet wet. H figures.

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as I wore my new sneakers today.

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>> I'm Coy. This is Elise. And this is

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feeding a whale shark.

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>> Wow, that's amazing.

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>> This is And eats nearly 40 lbs of food

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every day. But see how he swims

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alongside other large fish. You won't

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see a whale shark chasing down big prey.

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These giants are filter feeders, gulping

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huge amounts of water and filtering out

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tiny meals, including krill, shrimp,

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jellies, fish eggs, and small fish. And

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despite a mouth that can stretch 4 ft

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wide, their throats are only about the

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size of a quarter.

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For senior aquarist Elise, it took

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starting a career that she didn't enjoy

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to lead her to her true passion.

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>> My undergrad is actually in business, so

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nothing to do with taking care of fish

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or working in aquariums or anything like

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that. Um, but after like being in the

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corporate world for a few years, I kind

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of decided that this is not what I

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wanted to do. And I always loved fish. I

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always loved the ocean. And so that

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brought me to

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just trying to get any entry- level job

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in an aquarium. You might have to be

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flexible to move. And um, just being

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open to that possibility because

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sometimes the opportunities like I've

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gone all the way across the country.

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I've been in Arizona, Oregon, Florida,

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and now Georgia. So, um, you really kind

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of have to bounce all around and be

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willing to do that if you,

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you know, really want to be in this job.

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So, my biggest piece of advice would be

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find a local aquarium or

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any sort of like wildlife center, nature

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center, whatever that you can volunteer

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at, especially if you don't have a lot

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of a lot of experience right off the bat

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because that is where you get a lot of

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that like baseline experience and just

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to see if you actually want to do it.

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Um, you know, it obviously this looks

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super cool

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in this moment right now feeding a whale

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shark, but this is just a small

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percentage of our day. So, a lot of

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other things that go into it are maybe

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not the not so glamorous parts, right?

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Like the cleaning up and the diet prep

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and all that kind of stuff. It's a very

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dirty job.

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>> You almost got me.

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We almost had the other kind of koiish.

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>> Watch out, Moana. Colin keeps this

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aquarium's underwater environments

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functioning properly so the animals can

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thrive. What is a day in the life of

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Colin like?

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>> Well, depends on the day. We got lots of

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moving parts around here and plenty of

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things to be monitoring, you know,

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controlling at any given time. But on a

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typical day, if everything is going

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right, means I come in, I check my

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computer, I check for alarms, anything's

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out of range, um, I read what happened

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in our overnight shift, um, so we

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communicate well between our shifts and,

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uh, we go and look at each piece of

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equipment around the entire building. um

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look at each, you know, protein skimmer

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or uh sand filter. Make sure pressures

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are good, temperatures are good, all the

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water parameters for that system are in

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intact. Every single part needs to be

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maintained and continue to work properly

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for our animals to be happy and healthy

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in their exhibit. Attention to detail is

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very important here. It's if we miss

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parameters um things can go wrong and

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cost money lives. So uh you know that's

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key.

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>> It takes scientists, animal care

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experts, educators, engineers, and so

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many others working together. Every job

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has a vital role because caring for

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thousands of animals takes a team.

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That's all we have time for for today.

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We'll see you later. I'm Ky Wire and we

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are CNN 10.