How to Become a Marine Mammal Trainer: Anybody who has talent and dedication can become a marine mammal trainer. A college degree is not required, but would always be beneficial. Another beneficial quality in an aspiring trainer would be good public speaking skills. Often times an aquarium will have public performances of what the animal and trainer has learned. A good knowledge of the animal and its natural environment would also be helpful. Strong swimming skills and most times a swimming test are required. SCUBA lessons are also a plus. Most people begin by volunteering at a local aquarium or zoo. You don't necessarily have to voluteer with marine mammals, its is just good to become comfortable with feeding and cleaning. Once you get a job working in an aquarium, you will generally begin with maitnence or education before you begin training. It is very important that the animal becomes comfortable with you before you can begin a training program. |
Your Responsibilities as a Trainer: Most initial responsibilities include cleaning, feeding, education, or as a trainer's assistant. Once you become a trainer, the list gets longer, but equally as interesting. Responsibilities include cleaning, preparing fish feeding, writing records, performing in shows or demonstrations, public education, and a lot more cleaning. You teach the animals new, fun behaviors and "veterinary" behaviors. The veterinary behaviors allow a vet to look over the animal with the least amount of stress possible. They can teach the animal to lay a certain way for an exam or to swim onto a scale. All types of marine mammals can be trained. Some examples are seals, sea lions, otters, walruses, whales, and dolphins. |
Training Techniques: The animals are trained using a technique called "operant conditioning". It is the use of positive reinforcement for correct behaviors. The animals are never punished for doing the behavior incorrectly or not doing it at all. They are simply not rewarded. The first thing that must be established is a type of bridge. This is something other than fish, to let the animal know it has done well. The most common bridge is a whistle. While a dolphin, for example, is in mid-jump the whistle is blown to let the dolphin know it is correct and it will be rewarded when it has finished. After you have established the bridge, you can begin training natural behaviors done on cue. To teach an animal to do a non-native behavior, one common technique is to teach the animal to follow a target. Every time it touches the target it is rewarded. The target is moved to increasingly more difficult positions until it reaches the high jumps you see at Sea World and and popular aquariums. The newest training technique is using underwater sound to initiate behaviors that are already learned. The trainers have a hand-held terminal to control what sounds are played. |
Dolphin Human Therapy: The most beneficial thing about training dolphins is that they can assist in the healing of injured people, especially children. In Key Largo, Florida, a Dolphin-Human Therapy Center conducted research to find out if two weeks in dolphin therapy can achieve the same or better results as six months in conventional speech or physical therapy. Forty-seven children, all of different ethnic backgrounds, with different disabilities, had significantly greater improvement in dolphin therapy. It is also more cost effective. |
