Vancouver Aquarium Presents Introduction: Over about the last thirty years, Steller sea lions have declined about 80 percent in Alaska, where most Steller sea lions are found. The population in British Columbia and southeast Alaska is still pretty healthy, but the majority of the population has simply disappeared in Alaska. And scientists have been putting in a huge effort to try to figure out exactly why they’re disappearing or why they’re dying or why they’re not being born. And the research here at the Vancouver Aquarium and with our captive sea lions is part of a huge international effort to try to figure out what might be wrong with Steller sea lion populations. Steller Sea Lion Research Project Billy Lasby: My name is Billy Lasby, and I’ve been at the aquarium now for about 13 years and have been lucky enough to be working with the Steller sea lions now for about 8 and a half. A typical day for us, the very first thing we do with the Steller sea lions is weigh them. We want to get an accurate weight every morning. Every two or three days we’ll get measurements from them, so we’ll measure their lengths from the tip of their nose right to the end of their tail, but also measure their girth, so the distance around their bodies. So these are the two basic things that we do pretty much every day. Other things that we do that are very, very important are husbandry. Basically checking over the animal, checking every inch of their body, their backs, their bellies, their mouths, their eyes, their ears – just to make sure that they’re healthy, because as well as doing really well at the research we want them to be very healthy. We build the relationship in trust with the Steller sea lions through many, many hours of just working with them. We work with these animals 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 8 hours a day to build that trust and relationship, and just through many types of sessions. We have the training sessions, but we also have social sessions where we actually just sit with the animals and help build that trust by having them play with us and interact with us in and around the pools. Short trials in this chamber tell researchers how much energy sea lions use at rest. The work that the Stellers do for us is definitely voluntary. We don’t push them to do anything they don’t want to do. Everything is heavily reinforced and they pretty much enjoy everything that we do with them. A big part of my job is not to force these animals to do anything they don’t want to do. Everything is just worked through and everything is kept very, very positive with the animals. Especially with the size of Steller sea lions, like females are roughly about 200 kilos and Tag [our male sea lion] is about 700 kilos. If an animal doesn’t want to do anything, we’re not going to be able to force them to do anything. So we judge a lot of the sessions on how they’re going to react. And if they don’t want to do a session, then we’re not going to force them to do it. We take a step back and maybe try them a bit later on. It would be very difficult to do the research that we’re doing without trainers like myself and Gwyneth [Shephard] and Troy [Neale] and Nigel [Waller] to get this research done because a lot of this has to do with the relationship. And how we work with the animals and how much we get done with the animals has a lot to do with this relationship that we do have. The most rewarding part of my job is definitely coming and working with these guys and the relationship I do have with each individual. They’re all so different and they all react differently with myself and the other trainers. Just having that dynamic is a pretty amazing thing to be a part of. The sea lions at the Vancouver Aquarium give researchers valuable information they cannot learn from wild sea lions. |