More time with the fish: Behind the scenes at the SEA Aquarium during the circuit breaker
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More time with the fish: Backside the scenes at the Ocean Aquarium during the circuit breaker
Aquarist Wendy Yam, 26, is part of the team that takes care of the SEA Aquarium's Shark Seas showroom. (Photo: Marcus Ramos)
SINGAPORE: The halls are nighttime and the viewing gallery silent, but in the blue of the Open Ocean Habitat, the rays are in a fever, unconcerned that the crowds and flashing cameras are currently not part of their daily routine.
Stingrays the size of dinner tables oversupply around aquarist Wendy Yam. Smaller cownose rays nuzzle her hopefully as she mitt-feeds them fish and squid from a tub full of sashimi-course seafood.
On a normal mean solar day, the smushed faces of children and a thicket of selfie sticks would line the tank's drinking glass console, but today, ane photographic camera – a video announcer's – captures the feeding frenzy.
In the midst of Singapore's "excursion breaker", the Sea Aquarium at Resorts World Sentosa has been airtight to the public since Apr 7, but aquarists such as Wendy are still working and diving. They're non your typical essential worker, simply to the marine creatures, they're indispensable.
"Sometimes when nosotros dive in the exhibits and y'all look through the acrylic panels it looks quite sad and it's very quiet (as) you don't take guests waving at you or request you to take pictures," Wendy mused.
"I matter that I miss are the kids … they get very fascinated when they see the animals. When they encounter the defined they get even more excited."
But with no guest engagements, the aquarists are spending more time and energy on the marine animals.
"We become to spend more than time with the animals, get a little more than personal with them," Wendy said, who reeled off anecdotes about the animals and shared their quirks in spontaneous bursts throughout the mean solar day that CNA spent with her.
The tasselled wobbegong shark pups wag their tails whenever they see food coming their way. The divers all need to wear hoods because the curious bowmouth guitar shark might, when the mood strikes, nibble at their heads. The bonnethead sharks – which look like miniature hammerheads – are smaller and are target-fed using a stick to brand sure they get their share.
"During our swoop feeds, because information technology is no longer a testify feeding, we can target some of the smaller rays that are at the lesser of the exhibit," she said. "Perhaps they become then-called bullied past some of the larger rays, so we spend more time feeding them to ensure that all of them get food."
FISH ARE FRIENDS, AND FOOD
The evening feed comes near the finish of a full day that started at 8am when Wendy and her team diced and minced seafood in the kitchen for the over 100,000 creatures in the aquarium.
They sneak in some goodies as well - vitamin pulverization and garlic – which help boost their immunity.
"It makes our fish stronger," the 26-year-old yelled over the steady drumbeat of chopping cleavers and slippery slop of fish bits being portioned out for the unlike species.
In an hour or so, trundling carts carrying well-nigh 400kg of feed are pushed out – yes, that's just for 1 day. Then information technology's off to feed the fish.
Some of the food is scattered from the surface, and some is used for the swoop feeds, but the 3 reef manta rays in the Open Sea Habitat get a special repast in the morning.
When Mako, Mika and Manja hear the precipitous popular of the feeding scoop striking the water surface, they know it'due south time for breakfast krill.
Circling the tank, they swooped in with their maws wide open and scooped up the tiny, pink shrimp – fortified with vitamins and minerals.
Post-feed, Mika spread his wings, slapping the water playfully in a petty dance in front end of the aquarists.
"IT'Southward LIKE VACUUMING YOUR HOUSE"
Cleaning the largest tank in the aquarium – which holds more than 42 1000000 litres of water (equivalent to 17 Olympic sized pond pools) – is like vacuuming your house, Wendy says.
I couldn't merely take her discussion for it, so this announcer, who shadowed her while she did her duties (at a safe distance, of form), gave vacuuming a giant fish tank a go.
When yous vacuum your house, there's no need to strap an air supply to your back, don a wetsuit and fins, and dive to the lesser of a 12m-deep tank. Once we reached the bottom, hoses hidden in the rocks were unrolled and siphoning bells attached to them.
Moving methodically, divers placed the siphoning bells flush against the floor of the tank, "vacuuming" the substrate, which is made up of broken coral and sand.
The suction stirs upward the sand, which settles to the lesser once more later on the dirt, which floats up, is sucked from information technology. That goes through a biofilter and into the h2o organization, before the cleaned water is pumped dorsum to the tank.
In an 60 minutes, two divers went through a section of the tank about the size of a studio apartment. Then they needed to accept a surface interval earlier the next swoop, to avert getting decompression sickness.
It takes x hours of diving to complete the Open up Ocean Habitat, and then rather than vaccuming a house, information technology is more like vacuuming ten small houses, over a week or so.
Besides keeping the substrate clean, the aquarists sometimes mop the acrylic panels to keep them clear of algae. We circled the tank, observing the marine animals to check their condition.
Wendy peeped into the nooks and crannies, pointing out to me a bamboo shark sleeping nether a coral. As we swam, hawkeye rays swept past, tuna swooshed by in silvery streaks, and a curious batfish pecked at my fingers.
"It'due south a good time for the divers to become downwards and get a more up-shut view of the animals to run across if they're sick or if they're good for you – whether they have whatsoever health bug, whether they are meaning," said Wendy.
"We might notice that maybe i of them is swimming a piffling slower – these are things nosotros have to flag."
Before returning to land, nosotros paused in the shallows to watch Mako, Mika and Manja glide and swoop through the tank.
"WHEN YOU'RE WORKING Y'all DON'T FEEL TIRED"
After shadowing Wendy for most of the day, and doing only one swoop, this journalist was wearied but Wendy looked every bit sprightly as she did in the morning time.
"When yous're working you don't feel tired," she said. "(Just) I tin can go home and consume dinner and just autumn asleep after that."
Information technology's a physically demanding job, and the pint-sized Wendy straps on upward to 15kg of gear each time she dives – about ane-tertiary of her weight. The aquarists can practice from 2 to four dives a day, she said.
It's also a task where you start the 24-hour interval as a sashimi chef, double up equally underwater housekeeper while beingness responsible for more than 1,000 species with different needs, diets and habitats.
But it'southward these creatures that continue her going, she said.
"I used to think that fish were but fish … but actually they each take their own grapheme," she said.
"Similar our different rays – maybe black blotch rays would tend to exist more docile - they tend to merely rest at your feet, whereas leopard rays, during feeding, they are the ones that become more excited they're climbing all over you.
"Possibly information technology's just me, only that'due south one matter that I actually like, working with them and learning something new every day from them."
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/circuit-breaker-behind-the-scenes-at-sea-aquarium-rws-193551
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