How do dolphins do that?

From Justin Garner, dolphin trainer at the National Aquarium

One of the most common questions that we get here at the Aquarium is, “How do you get the dolphins to do that?”   As trainers, we spend most of our day building positive relationships with the dolphins to provide them with an enriching, healthy, and stimulating environment. 

Training the dolphins for medical behaviors not only makes veterinary visits positive, but also allows the animals to voluntarily cooperate in their own health care.  Training the dolphins to perform natural behaviors in the dolphin show provides our guests with the opportunity to be entertained and educated about this species’ plight in the wild.  And, believe it or not, all of this is done completely with positive reinforcement, which means that we never punish or force our animals to do anything that they do not want to do.

We have several different types of training sessions.  1) Relationship sessions build and solidify the unique relationship that has been established between the animals and trainers.   2) Play and enrichment sessions provide the opportunity for the dolphins explore novel objects and exhibit natural behaviors.   3) Learning and practice sessions teach new behaviors to the animals as well as practice behaviors that they have already learned.

We are getting ready to open our new dolphin show, “Our Ocean Planet”!  We (and the dolphins) are busy with the training process for the show.  So that guests can witness their unique adaptations for life on our ocean planet, the dolphins are learning many new behaviors, including one that will allow the audience to see them swim up to their top speed of almost 25 miles per hour!  The dolphins are learning new behaviors every day.  We will always be adding new behaviors to “Our Ocean Planet” – this means that every show will be different from the one before.  So, stay tuned and and click here to recieve updates on our new dolphin show!

Making smart seafood choices

Around the world, people are eating seafood more than ever before. Everyone has heard the term, sustainable seafood, but what exactly does it mean for consumers?

By definition sustainable seafood is seafood from either fished or farmed sources that can maintain or increase production in the future without jeopardizing the ecosystems from which it was acquired.

Fishing practices worldwide are damaging our oceans—depleting fish populations, destroying habitats and polluting the water.  The sustainable seafood movement has gained momentum as more people become aware about both overfishing and environmentally-destructive fishing methods.

So what can you do? Make ocean-friendly seafood choices when dining out or purchasing seafood at the grocery store. There are plently of sustainable seafood guides available online to help you make smart choices. The National Aquarium supports the Seafood Watch Guide that is prepared by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Interested in learning how to prepare sustainable seafood?  The National Aquarium is introducing a new dining series that celebrates sensible and scrumptious seafood choices. Fresh Thoughts: A Seafood Dining Trilogy will consist of three unique events that feature educational cooking demonstrations and seated dinners overlooking the Aquarium’s coveted view of the Baltimore Harbor. Click here to learn more!  And if you have a favorite recipe or local restaurant that offers sustainable seafood, please share with us.

Beautiful but wild

From Beth Lindenau, Animal Trainer at the National Aquarium

Parrots are animals with amazing adaptations for life in the wild.  Those same adaptations don’t often translate well to the living room.  They have a long life span and can be very loud, damaging to property, and have complex social and environmental needs.  It is easy to see why the average person may not be equipped to have a parrot as a pet. 

As a group, parrots are unique and fascinating.  Their beauty, rarity, and ability to form our words captivate us.  They are increasingly endangered in the wild with many hovering on the brink of extinction due to the dual threat of habitat loss and capture for the international trade in wildlife.  Many companion parrots that have found their way into private homes are being surrendered to rescue organizations when the reality of living with a wild animal sets in.  

In an environment that is foreign to them, such as our living room, they will still attempt to maintain vocal contact with their mate or their flock, which in this case are the people in the home.  Often people are unprepared to accept this level of noise that can quickly get out of hand.  Parrots are hard work.  Still we love them.  So what do we do?

Meet Baltimore’s Newest TV Star

 One of Baltimore’s residents will soon become a national television celebrity!  On January 22, the National Aquarium’s very own Margaret traveled from Baltimore to New York City to be featured as a guest during a taping of The Martha Stewart show.  Margaret was also joined by Liz Evans, Manager of Animal Training for the National Aquarium, because she is a little different than the typical guests of most talk shows: Margaret is a Hyacinth Macaw, an endangered species of bird now found in the Pantanal region of Brazil.

The show airs February 10, on WBAL (Ch 11) at 11:00 am. Animal trainer Beth Lindenau and Margaret will also be on WBAL’s evening news between 5-6 pm.

As part of a joint venture between the National Aquarium and the Maryland Zoo, Margaret and Liz appeared on a segment of the show to speak about endangered birds.  Once inhabiting several countries in South America, the Hyacinth Macaws numbers were reduced due to the usual factors of habitat loss and conversation of land for agricultural use and cattle farming.

The Hyacinth Macaw Project is dedicated to saving these birds with an educational program involving local farmers in the Pantanal region of Brazil.  The project has been a great success: the population more than doubled in the first ten years of the project, with 3,000 birds reported in the year 2,000.  The population has now grown to more than 5,000 birds.

Rescued sea turtle flies south

Earlier today, a patient of the National Aquarium’s Marine Animal Rescue Program received a very special plane ride to Florida aboard the private plane of  Aquarium board members, Mary and Harold Graul. The green sea turtle was flown to the Marine Science Center, bidding the cold temperatures of the Northeast goodbye.

The sea turtle came to the Aquarium in the fall after being rescued off the Maryland coast where it was found cold stunned.  After a few months of rehabilitation by the Aquarium’s vets and MARP team, the animal was approved to be released back into its natural habitat. Unfortunately, the waters at this time of year are too cold for the turtle, so its return to sea had to be postponed. To make room for new patients to the National Aquarium, the Marine Science Center agreed to keep the turtle until the water reaches warmer temperatures.

In a few months the Aquarium’s MARP team will travel down to Florida with a satellite tracking tag and release the turtle back into the ocean. Click here to see how other animals have been tracked over the years!