Poop Cleaning Here I Come...

With my training all done and the long wait until the schedule was written up behind me, it was time for my first Aquarium dive.  With enough fear and anxiety to fill my van I arrived at the Vancouver Aquarium and waited outside the door I was told to wait by.... I guess arriving at just after 7:00 for an 8:00 shift was a little too early...lol.  But to my relief after waiting a little less than a half hour one of the divers I would be joining today arrived and showed me another door to check for an employee who could let us in.  Once inside and all the way down to the dive room it was time to start getting ready.  Needless to say I was sweating from nerves long before being inundated with the heat from the dive room situated beneath miles of heat pipes and far warmer than I would have liked it.  After grabbing a weight belt and getting it and my BCD set up it was time to head to the deck and see if our tender for the day, Kristi Hefron (yes the same Kristi from Certified Poop Cleaner...) needed any help setting up.  With everything ready for the dive it was time to finish gearing up and head to the exhibit.  Being a new diver I am only allowed to use Beauty (the twin scrubber) and limited to the Wild Coast Exhibit, home to my friends the dolphins Hana, Helen and Spinaker.

So with my kit on, I took my seat on the edge of the deck and waited while Kristi fastened the surface supply to my BCD and passed me my hose for my Dry Suit and my regulator... then it was time to dive in.  Using the seated entry and then joining my dive buddy for the day we descended together taking beauty to the bottom of the tank.  With the vacuum hose attached it was time to start my cleaning.  Following a 62 minute dive, one of my first dives beyond an hour and one of the advantages of diving surface supply, it was time to exit the water and call it a day.  With the cleaning done, and my coupon for a free coffee and muffin in hand it was time to head out and look forward to my next dive... dive number 50... and the final step in my certification as a Master Scuba Diver!

Certified Poop Cleaner...

This week, for four days I went through a fairly intensive training regimen on diving including learning the (new to me) DCIEM tables used by the Canadian Military and promoted by Worksafe BC.  We covered the history of diving from Robert Boyle and Jacques Charles to Joseph Gay-Lussac, John Dalton and William Henry on day one and a day of learning and certifying as a DAN Emergency Oxygen Provider, then, it was time to get wet!  Off to a local pool where it was time for us to swim laps.. oh yes, my favourite thing...lol... followed by free diving to the bottom of a 15 foot pool to recover a weight and return to the surface.  The morning of day number three started promptly, and with most of us on time, we started by dragging all of our gear and tanks out to pool side and were greeted by an amazing surprise.  Apparently despite Melanie's claims in You may call me... "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner" about us not being around or in direct contact with the animals, we would be diving with Daisy.

Daisy is an an orphaned harbor porpoise currently being rehabilitated and trained by the Marine Mammal trainers and Doctors at the Aquarium.

We would be given this amazing opportunity, under the direct supervision of Kristi Hefron (Senior Marine Mammal Trainer at the Vancouver Aquarium). Going two divers at a time, along with Jeremy Heywood (Dive Safety Officer at the Vancouver Aquarium), we would enter the water to demonstrate our in water skills.  Step one though, and my most difficult, was to follow Kristi's instruction to "not touch Daisy"... This is tough, and for anyone who ever gets the chance to see her you'll understand, she is incredibly playful and loves people.  So to get in the water you need to wait until she is out of the way (or usually distracted by Kristi throwing a toy) and then do a very careful and quiet seated entry into the pool.  Now to just resist the temptation to touch Daisy as she comes up to see what new toys Kristi has brought for her to play with...lol.  Then it was on to skills... pretty simple stuff, swim out to the centre of the pool, descend and wait for Jeremy, then, when indicated, do a reg remove and recover, mask flood and clear, (If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS), and finally remove your weight belt and bcd and then put them back on... no worries.. a couple flash-backs to Seals to Emergencies but other than that no issues.  The afternoon was just as easy, and just as hard not to touch daisy...lol.  Back in the water but this time with the surface supply attached, now we can breathe forever if they keep switching tanks up top...lol.  A couple laps of the pool and all done, time for the next group and then the end of another fun day.  Day four of our training and day two in the water saw us setting up gear beside the Beluga med tank, today we would be taking turns descending into the 10 foot med tank on surface supply and learn to operate the double scrubber lovingly named Beauty.  With everyone finished we cleaned up the equipment, rinsed the gear and changed back into our street clothes to debrief with Jeremy and have him sign off in our log books marking our completion of our program and making us official and certified Poop Cleaners!

Our Animals, Our Exhibits, My Brain....

May was nuts... there really is no other word for it so I am combining it into one blog... As mentioned previously in You may call me... "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner" I have been gifted the amazing opportunity of training as a volunteer diver for the Vancouver Aquarium.  Now to put this into a bit of perspective to get my Open Water Certification for diving, I attended 4 - 4 hour long classes that involved fitness tests ("Fitness... I don't need no stinkin' fitness") Knowledge Reviews, homework and in water practice culminating in a 50 questions exam (The "future" and the past!) and then a demonstration of all my skills in the open water.  For my certificate that allows me to be a volunteer for the Aquarium, not even a diver yet, I attended the orientation, then passed an interview and then.... I needed to complete 8 - 3 hour modules at the Aquarium learning everything from Marine Biology, the Arctic Environment, how to tell the difference between the Beluga's and even a little Lady Gaga... you'd have to ask David... words just cannot explain...lol.

Well here I am, my brain is fried, May is behind me and June is just started, I have completed all of my sessions and even had the chance to watch volunteers for other departments do presentations, I fortunately didn't have to present... I'm only a diver after-all...lol.  Next week we start the Diver related training... that should be interesting... not too worried though, unless of course Jeremy makes me sing Lady Gaga....

Much Harder Than It Looks....

What a busy week!! Last week I had my Photography class on Monday, Aquarium Orientation on Wednesday night and Aquarium volunteer interview on Thursday!  Then, to top off my week and start this busy one, yesterday I had my Photography class and the shop BBQ.  Arriving early as always, I parked in the typical lower parking lot, right by the benches and in a perfect spot for a short walk to the shore.  Then within a couple minutes of arriving I saw Dennis arrive and head to the upper parking.  So throwing my fins back in the van I moved up to where he had parked.  Soon after Matt arrived and said Wes had let him know we would meet in the lower lot after all, as there would be more space.  Dennis and I decided to wait to see what Wes and Shannon wanted to do when they got there as they were only a couple minutes behind Matt.  Once they arrived they let us know that we would be using the upper lot as that is what they had mentioned on the original email...lol.  But after reviewing the lot, we decided to compromise and move to the middle lot, giving us the room we would need but keeping us close to our original plan so that no one would be lost or confused...lol.  Lots of work and we hadn't even started yet.

Once parked it was time to assemble kits and review notes and start getting everything ready for our Photography dives.  Once the whole class arrived, and with our gear all assembled we sat with Wes to discuss the plan for the day, buddy up and then get out gear on.

After our short briefing and with gear in place and buddy teams arranged we headed for the water.  Of course with Chloe still out with her foot, there was only 5 divers going in, Matt with the one student and me with the other DM and Wes watching us all.  The idea for the first dive was to have each of us try to focus on Macro photography and get REALLY close to stuff, and then practice getting our lights in the right spots so that we could try to get a few shots that worked.

This is where everything went pear shaped for me, my strobe is apparently VERY bright and the resulting "flash" was blowing away all of my photos, even with my shutter set up really high, and my aperture really low and ISO set at 80 (as low as it goes), my photos were still oddly over exposed.  The only thing that started to work was moving the strobe further away from the object but that resulted in back-scatter, (when all the particulate in the water is lit up and very prominent in the photos.)  Wes did his best to try to help me accommodate to the blasting light and even tried snapping off a few himself helping me get things a little more dialed in.  Then to complicate matters, visibility sucked pretty bad and was not helped by the fact 5 divers were trying to get as close to the ground as possible and then take off again without disturbing the ground... easier said then done.  For much of the first part of the dive we had debris everywhere and were struggling to shoot through it.  Wes led the way most of the time moving back and forth between the two groups and giving tips as he could.  He even flipped a sun star over for me so that I could photograph it as is set itself right again.  Then as we got a little deeper and visibility got a little better we were able to separate a little more and managed to get a few more usable images.  But alas, before long, people started getting cold and air started to run shorter so we headed back in to the shallows capturing images as we did and then headed up for lunch, a debrief and a chance to review some of the images.

Getting my laptop out of the van it took only a minute to download all of my failed attempts and my few success' onto my computer.  Then Wes was able to scroll through them and see what if anything he could tell me that would help me move from being totally worthless at underwater photography to at least somewhat useable...lol.  Everyone ended up with a shot or two that they were happy with and then it was time to eat!

Now I love the Ocean Pro BBQ's, in fact I love BBQ's in general...lol and this was no exception.  For $5 you get a couple of amazing burgers, some salad, a pop, and all sorts of other plate (and stomach) fillers.  Ashley was there to help with the cooking, and Shannon kept everyone organized while encouraging people to eat more...lol.  Amongst some of the other divers in attendance were Dennis, Ward, and Virpi (my supremely incredible instructors) and Stewart (the man who keeps everything running.)  After having my fill of burgers it was time to clean up, stow my laptop, and change the batteries in my camera (just to be safe). 

With everything clean, stowed and changed, it was time to head for the water.  With our team together we waded into the water and this time had the plan to go out a bit further and descend along the wall and see if we could capture images of the life along the rock.  After descending and meeting at the bottom it was time to (in our pairs) move out along the bottom and wall and find exciting life and items and attempt to capture usable images.  After a few feet I went in for a photo of a sunstar and it came out black... so I moved the light in a bit, adjusted a couple settings, and boom... blown out and WAY too bright.... a couple more setting changes... still to bright... again... still bright but better... a couple of tweeks... black again!  Grrrrr!!!

Now that I was one step away from seeing how far I could throw my camera underwater.. I decided to try one more time... this time, while still black.. I noticed something.. I didn't see a big flash...hmm.  So, holding the camera away from me, I pulled the trigger... sure enough, my on board flash went off.. but no strobe...  I flicked the switch back and forth.... nothing... the batteries were dead!!  I had thought to switch my camera batteries but had not thought that the strobe batteries would be that low.... Grrrrr!!!

Well, with my photography done for the day, it was time to follow Wes and my buddy around.  Now my buddy didn't seem to be taking many photos either, she seemed to be mostly following Wes and watching what he was doing... looks like great minds think alike... literally... she had forgot to switch her batteries too...lol.  As it turned out once the dive was done, Wes had a failure in one of his strobes, and pretty much everyone else had battery issues. 

All said and done it was a great day and fun dives and I even got a couple images that I am sort of happy with.  I've attached them below, let me know what you think, and if you have tips.. let me know those too.

You may call me... "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner"

Last night I got the AMAZING opportunity to go to the Volunteer Orientation at the Vancouver Aquarium!! 

So why is it in my dive blog, you may ask?  Well, because I am a volunteer diver for the Vancouver Aquarium.... or will be once I:

1. pass my interview
2. complete the seven 3 hour modules about the aquarium
3. complete the 3 hours module on Marine Biology 
4. pass my dive theory exam
5. pass Diving emergency and accident management
6. pass the DAN Oxygen First Aid for SCUBA Diving Injuries 
7. complete the swimming evaluation (wee.. more fitness)
8. pass the Powered Equipment Safety exam
9. complete the check-out dive and skills circuit and
10. complete my surface supply diving equipment training

Then... then I will be a Volunteer Diver for the Aquarium!...lol.. and get to swim with all the animals and pat them and play with them and ride them.... WRONG!!  As Melanie Knight, (Acting Manager for Volunteer Services) had us (me and 90 other volunteers) repeat... I WILL NOT TOUCH THE ANIMALS...lol.  No this is not the Aquarium being mean, and no they are not selfishly all sitting in their offices hogging all of the animal hugs for themselves...lol.  The aquarium for obvious reasons can't guarantee anyone will ever have the chance to touch any of the animals, in fact even the divers (me) are in tanks, like the dolphin tank, while the animals are safely somewhere else.  For obvious reasons the aquarium does not want to mislead anyone into volunteering with the misconception that they will spend their hundred plus hours hugging and kissing cuddly animals only to have them get to their first shift and find out, no... they get to talk about the animals, they get to point to the animals, they get to answer questions about the animals, but they do not get to touch the animals.  A disillusioned or disappointed volunteer is an unhappy volunteer, and an unhappy volunteer leads to unhappy guests and unhappy guests don't come back, and without guests there is no need for volunteers and no resources (money) coming in, and without the money, there is no means to support the animals! And the mission of the Aquarium is to be a "self-supporting, non-profit association dedicated to effecting the conservation of aquatic life through display and interpretation, education, research and direct action."  In other words, their around to keep the animals around, show us what the animals look like (for anyone who doesn't actively swim with Jellies or Belugas and everything in between..lol), tell us what the animals are doing, and why they do it, all while themselves continuing to find out more on what makes these wonderful animals do what they do, in a deliberate and effective manner.  The other reason you can't touch... they don't want you to get hurt by the animals...lol

So... where does this leave me... Mr Active and Involved diver... new explorer and photographer of the undersea world?  It leaves me right wherever the Aquarium needs me, and for now that sounds like in the empty dolphin tank cleaning poop!  Doesn't sound exciting to you? Ok, then look at it through my eyes... I have been to the Vancouver Aquarium maybe half a dozen times in my life, for those of you doing the math at home that's roughly once ever six years... the Aquarium changes programs and adds exhibits on a continuous basis so if your not there like once a month you're missing stuff... so to think of the exhibits, animals and adventures I have missed over the 420 months I have been around is mind boggling - as a Volunteer, I can go whenever I want, if I don't understand something, they have staff that will help me, almost every diver I know pulls their information on local marine life from a book, if I can catch a picture or provide a decent description, I get the information live, from an expert!... Need more reasons... all three of my boys have been on field trips to the Aquarium and (surprise surprise) each of those field trips is led by a volunteer, someone who has given of their time to enrich my children's lives!  Nearly 30 years I walked the earth and knew that littering was bad and it hurts things like animals and mother nature, etc.  It wasn't until a trip to the Aquarium that someone actually "educated" me and the children I was working with on the dangers of plastic pop can rings and how birds (and other animals) get their necks caught in them and die.  Years later on another trip to the Aquarium I learned, (from a volunteer) that plastic grocery bags, you know the ones you now have to pay $0.05 for, the ones people will let blow down the street if the bag falls out of their car, those bags, when they hit the ocean very closely resemble a Jelly Fish, now as a diver I avoid the Jellies, but the beautiful Sea Turtles that we all dream about riding and loved watching in finding Nemo, they eat those "Jellies" and surprise, plastic bags are no better for them then they are for our babies!  These lessons are taught to our children and grandchildren and their friends on a daily basis by people who freely give of their time!  Don't you agree it's time to give back!  Now you understand a small percentage of why it's important for me to be involved in something this big.

Well, I'll be off for my Interview in a little bit, fingers crossed that they like me enough to give me a chance and hopefully I'll be able to provide updates as I go through my training and maybe, all going well... soon you'll be able to call me "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner!"