How to become a physical trainer/personal trainer?

How do you become a dolphin/marine animal trainer?

• I am currently majoring in biology. I wanted to become a teacher but on a recent trip to the Carribean I fell in love with doing what I really love -working with animals. I was wondering how you become a dolphin or even any marine animal trainer like beluga whales. I love animals, biology, the ocean and educating kids so this is basically my dream job. and it comes with the perks of a tropical location. How would I become one? and how much do they get paid? please only answer if you or someone you know is a trainer/ marine biologist or you work at an aquarium. Thank you.

• Answer:

  I'm a marine biologist, have worked in an aquarium and know some people who have worked with captive marine mammals, so I guess that qualifies me... First off though, I need to put something straight marine biology has nothing to do with training. Marine biology is the scientific study of the ocean and marine animals, training is the manipulation of animal behaviour for entertainment, science does not come into it. The one thing they have in common is that it is very hard to find a job and both are poorly paid- many trainers hold second jobs at the beginning, with 5 years experience you may expect $18 per hour. Don't panic though, marine parks are typically not too picky about what sort of degrees their trainers have, some of, for example, SeaWorld trainers have degrees in journalism and business, others only got one after starting to work there. SeaWorld state they prefer a degree in psychology, so you might want to see if you can squeeze some classes in somewhere. experience is more important. The sort of experience they usually look for as far as I'm aware is anything to do with training animals, particularly large animals, handling livestock for instance. There are a few places that also offer training internships on quite a frequent basis as for example Miami Seaquarium but their standard of animal welfare is so appalling it's really not worth considering in my opinion, no doubt may parks will consider it valuable experience though. Disney's Epcot offer internships as well; http://profinterns.disneycareers.com/en/internship-areas/operations/sciences-horticulture-zoology/ Mote Marine Lab is a well respected research institution and also have some internships were you work with their unreleasable dolphins: http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=College%20Internship%20Ops%20-%20Animal%20Care%2C%20Training%20%26%20R&category=Education Most places will also require you to be a strong swimmer and a confident public speaker so if you can take up some extracurricular activities that underline those abilities, it would probably be advisable to do that. Something you might want to consider though before following up on the trainer career plan is the stuff that SeaWorld and company don't tell you. Training has nothing to do with animal welfare, conservation or education. http://www.wdcs.org/stop/captivity/eu_campaign/entertainment.php Example of parks falsifying information leading to miseducation if anything else: http://www.orcanetwork.org/nathist/biennial.pdf http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/interviews/davis.html http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/JOEE.36.2.41-55 Or that many of their animals die prematurely and are in bad health despite the 'excellent veterinary care' they claim they have: http://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-hidden-cost-of-captivity-oral-health-of-killer-whales-exposed/ http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/marine_mammals/case_against_marine_captivity.pdf Or how many of their trainers get injured by the animals they are working with (about 50%) or that a lot of dolphins in captivity get highly aggressive due to the stress that they are under and that incidents like the one with Tilikum are not really that exceptional- and it's not just orcas either: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjUwL1I1YCc Or that there is little more to the fabled 'bond' between dolphin trainers and dolphins than the fish supply provided by the trainer, this is an extract from a book by a trainer who was involved in releasing dolphins back into the wild about the dolphins behaviour after the trainers stopped directly supplying them with fish: "Early on Echo and Misha would spend some time playing with people. Michelle didn't want to frustrate them by cutting of their interactions with humans abruptly, so occasionally she would sit in a small inflatable boat and let the boys come by to be rubbed. They seemed to like it at first . Then they started to get snippy about it, sometimes even slapping their tails on the water and making it perfectly clear "i don't need these rubs." once after a feeding session, when the fish were gone, michelle gave Echo the 'retrieve' sign, thinking he might bring back a ring that was floating in the water. He left and returned with a fish in his mouth. he shook it and ate it in fron of her- as if to say, "i don't need your fish, either." (Dolphin Chronicles by Carol J. Howard, good read I recommend it) Why not aim to work as a naturalist on a whale watching boat instead?