How do we clean the blue whale model?

On today's episode, we are joined by Environmental Services Supervisor Keisha Leonard to learn all about how her and her team keep the Aquarium squeaky clean. Keisha has been a part of our Aquarium for almost 20 years and shares some of her favorite memories along the way.

Episode Transcript

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Hi, I'm Erin Lundy. And I'm Madeline Walton, and this is Aquarium of the Pacific, a podcast brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, Southern California's largest aquarium.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Join us as we learn alongside the experts in animal care, conservation, and more.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Welcome back to Aquarium of the Podcific. I'm Madeline Walton, the Aquarium's digital content and community manager. And I'm Aaron Lundy, the conservation coordinator for Mammals and Birds. I'm really excited about today's episode. We have one of my favorite people at the aquarium, Keisha Leonard. She is a supervisor in our environmental services department. You might be wondering, what is the environmental services department? The environmental services department is responsible for the care and keeping around the aquarium. So it was formerly housekeeping, now it's environmental services because they do so much more. Actually, it's it's inside and outside that they are constantly maintaining and cleaning and keeping the space beautiful and also safe for our guests, which we'll talk more about in today's episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yeah, it's been really wonderful to work so closely with this department that does so much. And I think that they're sometimes the unsung heroes of the aquarium in general. They do so much, everything is so pristinely kept, and every time I know that something is slightly amiss, they are immediately there.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Oh yeah. If there is uh something smudged onto uh one of the exhibits, that team is on it in minutes. It's like they're they're just hovering, they're ready to strike at any team.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Every little thing, they're like, I actually know exactly how to clean this. I'm like, I don't know how to say as much as they have a lot of different things to work on, we were so fortunate to have Keisha on and get to talk to her about sort of what her job looks like and some of the more fun aspects of what she does. So it's a pretty it's a great episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

I think it's a really fun look inside of working at the aquarium and what it's like to um be on our staff. So I'm really excited for everybody to hear. It's on an animal focused episode, but it's a really cool inside look into aquarium operations. And Keisha's just wonderful. I'm really excited for everybody to get to know her too. And with that, we'll get into our episode. All right, everybody. I want to welcome Keisha Leonard, our environmental services supervisor, onto the podcast today. Hi, Keisha. Hi. Hello, can you tell us a little bit about your job here at the aquarium?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Um, yes. Do you want to start from the beginning? Yeah, please. Okay, so I started working here. Do I start? Like I started working here in April of 05, April 13th of 05. Um, and when I started, I was just a regular housekeeper. It wasn't environmental services, then it was called housekeeping. Um and after two months of working here, they asked me to be an alternate lead. Oh wow, because you're that good. And I was shocked, I was literally shocked. Um at that time they would call the um the leads housekeeping one. One day I came in and my name was up there on the schedule. But they didn't tell me. They didn't even tell me. They didn't ask me, they didn't tell me. I was like, you're gonna be housekeeping one. And I've I saw it, and my manager, no, my supervisor at that time, I caught her and it's because she wasn't there, and I was like, I think you made a mistake on the schedule. She was like, No, uh you're in charge. So that was how long? That was in 05. That was in 05. A couple months. So within a couple months, you were already after two months. After two months of working here. That's awesome. Yeah, um, she saw something in me that I didn't see. But I don't regret it. That's awesome. Um so then what? And then um after two years of working here, I became a full-time lead.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

And so, and I worked swing uh swing shift. I worked 3 to 11:30 and I did all the events, all the parties. I was here when we did the first um night dive. Really? Yeah, it was so cool. Yeah. That's a blessing. What was the first night dive like? It was unexpected because they didn't expect as many people to show up. Oh wow. I think they only had like two, one or two bars, and they were lines overloaded.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Yeah. So for people who don't know what night dive is, it's our it's my favorite event that we're in the aquarium. It's so good. It's a party. So it's adults only, it's 18 and over. We have bars, we have a live band, we have DJs in the galleries, there's usually an art component. It's it's just a really fun night at the aquarium. Um, we have a couple coming up. There's about six a year. Um, so whenever you're listening to this, there's likely one right around the corner. But it is a really cool event, and I'm I'm super jealous that I missed the very first one.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

I don't know if I was 18 yet, though the first one happened, but yeah, my favorite one is New Year's Eve one. That's my favorite. I love it. Even though I'm working, I'm still here. It's I love it. You get to shoot one of the cannons, right? Yeah, the confetti cannons.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

What? Yeah, I think. I didn't load that. I've never been here for New Year's Eve party on New Year's Eve. You have to come, it is nice. You can shoot a confetti cannon.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Well, no, Keisha does that. There's more than one. All the there's all the staff that are working that night get to do the cannons. Oh except me, because I gotta record you guys doing it. But it's still fun.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Yeah, even from my record it from your perspective of shooting the cannon.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

POV! You're shooting a can confetti cannon on the reserve eve at the Queer in the Pacific. Hey, good work. It's cool. So, okay, so you did the first night dive. That's that's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah, so I worked nights for six years. Um, and then the the lead in the daytime, she retired, and so I went the day shift. And I don't know if it was like after eight, nine years working here, I was promoted to a supervisor. And so that's where I've been ever since.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

And your almost coming up on your 20th. Yeah. No, 19.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

I'm comfortable on 19th in April.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

In April, yeah. Yeah. So cool. How was the transition from working nights to days? Do you have a preference? Do you kind of like I mean, I'm sure there's pros and cons to both, you know?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Well, I've been working days longer than I did nights, so I like days more now better. Yeah. Um some people they would ask me, because for a while I would work nights once a month. And so I work days, and then we would switch, me and the the supervisor. Well, there was a lead at night. We would switch. And some of the staff would, which one you like better? Which one you like better? I'm like, I like my check better.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

That's what I like.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

That's what I like. That's the truth.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

That's the truth. Do you have any um any spooky stories that happen now? I my favorite time to be here is at night. I think it it can be a little spooky sometimes, but it's really beautiful at night too. Yeah. Um, at least while the lights are still on.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yeah. But what is when the lights are on?

SPEAKER_03 6:40

It's weird.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Is it scary?

SPEAKER_00 6:41

It's pretty scary. Because in the galleries it gets pitch dark in there. Oh, really? And sometimes we have to go through tropical to go to the laundry room. And if you're in the midst of walking and the lights go out, sometimes I would like to stop in mid-range, like, oh my gosh, because you can't see. Yeah, you can't see in front of you.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

But one story I have, um, it was before they remodeled the gift store, Pacific Collections, and um, we have to go in there and clean their vents sometimes. So I'm up on a ladder on the far side of the store closest to gate 10, the walkway. And um I'm up on the ladder, and all of a sudden, a book from the far side by the the Great Hall comes off the shelf. Just one book? Just one book. What was the book? I didn't go. I you know what? I don't even think I went over there until I'm gonna I don't need to know. But that was the only one that, you know, this crazy story for me, like scary. That is scary.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Why is it just one book? What happened? I don't like that.

unknown 7:42

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

There's a couple of um of ghost stories around aquarium various.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Aquarium ghost episode. Keisha's on it.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

No, I'm not signing up the other part of that. That's so funny. I think something that would surprise me about the aquarium is that we do have a laundry room. Yeah. Like that's just something that I wouldn't even think about. There's actually several laundering areas around the aquariums. Yeah. A lot of stuff we gotta wash. I know, I know. I didn't think about it. I also think it's really funny that the major like, I feel like the majority of the items that you clean with are actually baby diapers, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Yeah, we do use baby diapers. Um, they you'd be surprised how good they clean the acrylic. And they clean glass and they just they dry up spills quicker too, you know, when they absorb the babies. And they're reusable.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

They're not talking, we're not using, you know, diaper diapers, but it's so funny because sometimes we'll be walking around, you'll just hear someone like, oh, can you grab me a diaper? And it's just like one of those things that I have to remind myself, like, no, that's normal here. That's right. That's something that's that's normal.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

We probably say that in front of guests all the time. Oh, for you know, hey, can you go grab me a diaper really quick? And like one of those guests.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

We mean we're a big family happy wear the Pacific. Whatever you need, you know, you can ask anyone in a blue shirt.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Can you give me a diaper, please? I guess I never really appreciate it. So I I just know them as like, you know, they're like white rags that we used to clean. And I know we call them diapers, but I don't think I made the leap in my head that they are actually used typically as like cloth diapers. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. It was before your time. I think I was a disposables baby, which is probably not great for the environment. Probably not. But hey, now we It wasn't your choice. You don't know that. You don't know how old I was. It was last year.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

That is your choice.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah, that's my choice. I I approve of it. That's interesting. I just I yeah. Can you grab me a diaper? Never thought that phrase was weird. I hear that 17 times a day. Maybe you should do something about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

That feels like a personal insane and for you to know how many times a day, I'm like, okay, yeah. We need to work on that. 17's kind of a lot, Madeline.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

I don't know what's missing.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

I'm picking things up.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

You know, it's been grabbing me a diaper 17 times a day. Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Well, back to Keisha. What do you think are some things about your job that would surprise our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Oh my gosh. That we also do like gardening around here. We when they say environmental services, we do a lot of the full environment. Yeah, the full environment. Inside and out. I'm responsible to water the plants in the front.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Really?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Um, and then we go through and we like we cut the weeds and shark lagoon, we cut branches that are overgrowing sometimes. We cut the weeds around the front plaza. So yeah, I think that would be surprised because we, you know, housekeeping, but we also go out and do gardening as well. External keeping. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Outside the house. It's true. Well, yeah, I mean, on top of that, I've seen your team on the the boom lift. The the boom lift, yeah. Um cleaning the glass. The blue glass, yeah. Outside of the aquarium.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah, and making it very beautiful. And I cleaned the one inside, the blue glass inside on the scissor lift. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I personally clean that one myself.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Is it nice, like the view from up there though? Like if you look down, or is it more scary because it's so high up there?

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Well, it depends on how high you are, because the view can look nice when you're at a certain level. But when you get I'm not trying to look down. I want to do what I need to do up here and come down.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

You're like, I'm not trying to be up here for very long. That's fair. I just always see y'all up there, and I'm just like, wow, that is such a crazy component of your job to be like 50 feet in the air. Yeah. The glass outside. Fairly often, too. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

How often does the um PV glass get clean? Um, we don't have a set schedule. I would say as needed. Okay. Yeah, I would say as needed.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Is there kind of like a typical day in your role, or is it really different every single time you walk in here?

SPEAKER_00 11:41

No, I would say it's about the same for the most part. There are times when it changes, but for the most part, it's the same. And I think because I've been doing it for so long, it's like second nature, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So anything that takes us out of the ordinary, it does not surprise me. Because my kids are the job. Yeah, another day.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Well, okay, well, speaking of things that were not in your nature and not in anyone's nature, is during the pandemic when we were closed and preparing to reopen, your team was crucial to not only keeping our staff safe, but to keeping our guests safe too. Um what was that like for you and your team? Yeah, maybe from just at the beginning of of the closing and how did how was that? It was it was challenging.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Yeah. Um because I think the there was a a lot of parts that was like so heart-wrenching. And um there were a lot of times when it was like, are we ever gonna open back up? But from the beginning it was unbelievable. First of all, it was unbelievable that the world was shutting down. Yeah. You know, um, and then you're hearing all these stories, you're hearing all the news and you're hearing all these stories, and you don't know what actually is gonna happen. Um but I remember the day we actually had to send all of our staff home. It was sad because there was guys that we had hired, like, um oh my gosh. There were guys that we had just hired, like probably like super recent. He was like, Am I losing my job? And I was like, oh my gosh. And and I had to be the one to sit there and tell them, you know, that's so that was really hard. And I it really I don't it really didn't hit me till right now when I'm talking about it.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Because I'm like, yeah. Well, because I think we are all in such a um just go forward. Yeah, just like you can't really stop to think about it because we this is something that's never happened before. Yeah, no, and so it's just immediately adapting to the situation. Yeah, and when you review it, you're like, I how how did we go through how it was traumatic for everyone?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

You know, I think we had to block a lot of it out for sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And so um me and Alfie, we were here like full time. We worked seven to four every day. And because me and Alfie started where we started at, we can go in the restrooms and clean them with no problem. Yeah, you know, so we were responsible to take care of all the restrooms, but we it was a time where we had to um dust all the galleries. So we dusted everywhere. We got in here the crew that we did have, everybody just, you know, we dusted every nook and cranny. So then it was like it was like a desert in here. It was a you know, I remember walking through Shark Lagoon one day and it was a windstorm. And literally we had like tumble weaves out there, like everything had accumulated into a big old ball. And I was like, we are deserted. Yeah, this place is deserted. So it was scary, not knowing if we were gonna open back up. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

It was um one of my favorite but also weirdest things during COVID is just like when we were fully closed, the animals noticed. And anytime any person would walk by, they were so interested in what we were doing because like, oh human, you know, and they were just like the penguins would chase you back and forth, and it was so weird to see these animals like genuinely they noticed a difference and their behavior changed as a result of it. And it's just not something I ever think about of how enriching it must be for some of these animals to see people every day interact with them, and then just immediately that was gone. And so I think the penguins were one of the happiest that people came back. Yeah. And then Chase, one of our sea lions, in the tunnel. Right. Used to always play with people every time anyone walked through the tunnel, Chase would just line up and be ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Oh, I would play with him so much during that time. I'm sure, I'm sure he was very heavily played with with all of the stuff. You know, we were definitely a smaller crew, but you know, there was there was people around, and so it was weird.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

It was a weird time though. It was really weird.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

But yeah, that is a joyful spot for me too, and during that time, as like those interactions with the animals and and seeing the aquarium empty and kind of having it to yourself in a way too. Yeah, it was it was odd. Yeah. So while while we were closed, you and Alfie were mainly on site keeping up because we still had people here, you know, and there's upkeep to do externally too, and all the things that you guys do. Um so how was a transition once we opened to the public?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Um, so then we started using like um these um what were they called? Um I was hoping you were gonna talk about it. I was gonna say, I was gonna say something. I can't remember the actual name we had for it, but we had these mist guns. We would go in there and disinfect the restrooms. Oh wow. And then we also made um bleach water for the acrylic. We would wipe that down every hour. Oh wow. And every hour we would go out and disinfect the um the sides of the shark tanks. Did you guys ever see us with the generators? Yeah, yeah, the steamer. Yeah. That was that was challenging. Very challenging. Because we'd have to move everybody back. Yeah. You know, we would do Shark Lagoon and the Rays. Um, so that was yeah, that was really challenging.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Those are such an important department, really keeping us safe, especially during a such a scary time where you know, like surfaces are scary, right? You know, touching anything is scary. Yeah, but you know, we it's so wonderful that we were able to reopen and have our you know our visitors back on site and also be able to keep them safe at the same time. So we have your team to thank for that. Yeah, yeah. We appreciate it so much. I was hoping you were gonna talk about those Mr. Guns because they look cool.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Do you guys still use them at all? Or no, we haven't used them in a while. Yeah, no. Is it just like a disintegrate? We use them up. We use them up.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

We don't even work yet, we used them. They've gone, it disintegrated. That's so funny. Um, I think people would be really surprised to learn about all of the ways your department has to adapt to the strange surfaces we do have here because we have acrylic which can't be scrubbed or right. It can't have abrasive right. So that's something you have to be really mindful of. And then, of course, on top of that, you have the health and safety of our animals to consider, right? So, what are some things and what are some precautions that you guys have to take um for those what other people wouldn't do at their normal job?

SPEAKER_00 17:54

So, like in the shark shark legume we do the glass out there. There's different uh glass like at the um animal care center um and then the the jellyfish. So we use water. We have to use water because we can't cross-contaminate, especially like overwater viewing where the sharks are. We have to use water because if if you use the 543, the glass cleaner, it would get in the tank and cross-contaminate. So um we use the water, the squeegee, and we just we do it about 17 times a day. Yeah, yeah. 17 times a day. Now with the acrylic, we use diapers because towels will scratch it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

That's why we use that. It's not necessarily like they're just absorbent, it's that's a softer. The towels will scratch it.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

We cannot use towels on the acrylic. We have to use diapers. We don't use squeegeees on the acrylic because that can scratch it as well. We're very, you know, mindful of what we use on the acrylic.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

And we put a wet diaper, wet diaper on there, and then you go over it with a dry one. And it gets the fingerprints and everything.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

Yeah. Okay. Well, speaking of animals, um, do you get to interact with animals a lot in your position, or do you have any fun animal stories?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Um Do you have a favorite animal? I love the sea otters.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

They are so cute.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

But they don't interact with me that much unless I'm walking through early in the morning.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

Um they do do that though. Like in the first thing in the morning, that's my favorite time to see them because they're just like they perk up in the deep. Are you here to feed me? No, all right, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

But I do have a favorite animal. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm sorry, Michael. I'm sorry, Michael. Michael is a parrot fish. His name is Michael. I named him Michael accidentally. You guys do you you guys don't have to be asked? I haven't heard of how you accidentally named the fish, Michael.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

The big parrot fish.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah, the big parrot fish. He is beautiful. That is my favorite fish.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Oh my gosh. Can you please tell me how you accidentally named him the fish?

SPEAKER_00 19:54

I'm gonna tell you how accidentally it was during COVID. Yeah. Okay. So um I had read up on him to see, you know, I like that he his um defense mechanism, he covers himself in a uh, like a uh, what is it, a mass, like a gel. Like a mucus. A mucus. Yeah. And he eats coral. And his teeth are in the back of his neck. So he can like chew it all the way down, kind of thing. All right. So Nate was coming through, Nate from Husbandry, he's coming through and we're right there. And I can't remember exactly what words we exchanged, but I thought he said his name was Michael.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

I like the idea of Nate, who's our like senior director of husbandry, being like, yeah, that's Michael.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

But I like I said, I can't remember the conversation we were having, but I heard Michael. Therefore. And so he's been with Michael ever since. So um some of the staff from husbandry, they, you know, like, okay, we'll we'll call him Michael. Yeah. Every time someone who doesn't know Michael comes through there, I introduce them to Michael. This is Michael.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Oh my god. Okay, well, if you come visit the aquarium of the Pacific and you go into our tropical gallery, Michael is located inside of our coral predators' habitat. He's the biggest one. He's the big, beautiful parentfish. You can't miss him. He's stunning.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

You'll know Michael. You'll know Michael.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

He even looks like a Michael.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Biggest Michael energy. Big Michael vibes. Shout out to all the Michaels out there. You're beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

You look like you create a lot of mucus when you have parrot fish covered in mucus. You look like you have teeth in your throat. To every Michael out there. Congratulations on pooping pan.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. That's incredible. That's a good story.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

That's so Michael's your favorite. Michael's my favorite. I get that. He is so beautiful. He might be my favorite now, too. I know I think so. I think so. When you leave here, you need to go up to Charlie. We're gonna go on a Michael field trip. We should make a TikTok about Michael. We really should. But now that we know. You're right.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

You're right. I learned so much of this podcast, including about Michael.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

We should do an episode that's all animals with human names and be like, who's Michael? And then he'll like zoom in on the fish. Who's Parker?

SPEAKER_03 22:13

And then it's a sea lion. That was so funny for like Parker, I guess. I don't know why that makes more sense to me. I I we have a I think they call the balloon fish Fred, I've heard too. The balloonfish in Tropical. What about Mr. Moo? Mr. Moo Moo. He's Mr. Moo Moo. Oh, I'm sorry, there's two Moos. I did not know. Have you gotten to meet any animals up close before?

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Um, one of the sea lions, I think it was Miller. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Miller was our big dominant male before Parker. I never met him, but I've seen a lot of pictures. There's I guess um Linda, who's one of our longtime volunteers, was telling me this story about how Miller used to sleep in front of the door to so that people would come in and feed them, and he would just go take a nap in front of the door. No, and so no one could get out, so he was like, You gotta feed me forever. You know? It's like hang out right there. Yeah, and he would just go to sleep.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

And I was like, that's actually a great idea. I don't think so funny. I think the number one question we got for you is people want to know all about cleaning the blue whale. And by the blue whale, I mean our blue whale model that hangs in our great hall. Um, it was placed there in 1998, I think, when right before we opened. Um and it doesn't come down, it is up there. So And it's life size.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

And it's life size, it's like accurate to a blue whale, the largest mammal on the planet is hanging from the ceiling. Two whales, actually.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Two whales, and so just like everywhere else in the aquarium that you know can get maybe dusty time to time, or you know, no one's up there touching it at least. But how do we clean something that's hanging from the ceiling?

SPEAKER_02 23:49

It's in the middle of the ceiling, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah, right, right. So we have to get on the scissor lift and there's usually two people. I've been up there numerous times, me and Alfie. Alfie's been up there with Nicole, we've been up there with other staff members. And but it's it seems it's easy for us, but it might seem hard when I, you know. We use dusters and we just uh tediously go and dust in sections until we get the dust off that, you know, section. And we move on to the next and all the way down. Do you start from the head and the tail or we start at the tail and we do one side and we go on the all the way over and then we come on the other side and do the whole side like that?

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Have we found anything up there before that has made airplanes? I was gonna say paper airplanes, hmm.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

I wonder where those are from tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

Yeah, yeah. We have um paper airplane contests in the morning sometime here uh before we open. So I've seen several paper airplanes. And how often um do we clean the blue whale? Once a year, usually, or is a couple times a year? No, I would say a couple times a year. A couple times a year. So yeah, sometimes, you know, it'll happen. Because you guys are about to, are you about to clean it or did you just finish? No, they're doing a they're like painting it. Oh it's getting ready to get painted. Whoa. Yeah. They're painting. We saw it last night.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

News drop on Aquarium of the Pacific. The whale is getting a makeover. Yeah. That's exciting. So okay, so then we're gonna do okay, so then that'll at least align with the the cleaning of it in our paper airplane contest. So one does end up there on how to throw them all on the whale. No, don't throw them on the whale. So you guys get up there and you dust it very meticulously. I'm excited to see what it'll look like painted. I know. That is that the first time we've painted. I've been here. Wow, almost 19 years.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

I've been here. We've never painted it. How are they painting? Are they gonna take it down? No. They're gonna go up and like that's great.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

I think it's like four air. I could probably spray it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Oh. That makes way more sense.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

The moon is like a little dry video. When you go out there, if you look on the far side, you can see where they actually started doing some sanding.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

I love this. Yeah, just gonna have good tea. Like, I didn't know we were painting the whale. Now we know. That's cool. It's gonna be pink. Change the color of the whale. Yeah, it's not a blue whale anymore. It's not a blue whale anymore. Right.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Well, I have been can I please ask the question? Please have been dying to ask about. So earlier we asked Keisha, hey, do you have any stories that are funny about your time here? And Keisha said that one time something really funny happened, and I have been just dying all day to hear the story. So, Keisha, will you please tell us the story? And I'm so excited. You're shakier, I know. Vibrating with excitement of just like this is gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

I was thinking about that in one of you guys was like stories, and I'm like, I only have one. And this was like the funniest. This is the one. So I was working swing shift, and a lot of times on swing shift, we do a lot of dusting in the galleries as well, um, before COVID, after COVID. And our changing gallery, which is now our art gallery, it was um our changing gallery. I forgot what it was called then, but it had um rays, round rays in it, the small ones. Remember they had the touch tank in the are you guys familiar with the touch tank? I remember. And the door to get into the the back of the the round rays was locked. And I'm like, I need to get in this uh over here. I could have called security. But I'm like, I can just climb over. So they would put these plastic covers on it at night, and I took initiative to climb over the plastic covers, and right when I got in the middle, they broke, and I'm felling in it. Wait, not to mention Alfie was with me and he was laughing at me like crazy. He made me feel so bad. I was, oh my gosh. My phone was in my pocket, everything. I was I was soaked. I was soaked. I had to go home and change. I was also the fact that it waited till you were in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

It like could have broken right away and I would not have been sucked, but no. So I can say I swam with the rays. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Oh my goodness. I actually that is a better story than I thought. I was like, where could you have possibly fallen in? All the context was I fell into an exhibit, and I'll tell you about it later. I was like, I need to know. Were you okay?

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Were the rays okay? Yeah. Yeah, we were all okay. Good.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Yeah, heart to heart while you're down there with 70 minutes. You guys threw them. You're good. Okay, me too. I'm gonna go home and change. I should never get into one of Michael. While you're down there, hey Michael How you're doing that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

That's incredible. I love that so much.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

That's a really good desert. Have you ever fallen into an exhibit? Um, I I've slowly you know, like sometimes yeah, well, it's always worse because if you fall and you're like, whoa, I slipped in, then you're like, cool, I just felt the. Yeah, but there's been a time, so on our sea lion um pinniped exhibit, we have a ledge that we clean the acrylic from the inside, and we use diapers and water. Um, but it's slippery, and so and it's an uneven surface because it's like a rock surface. And so I was walking on it in waders, which are also like not very like grip-friendly. And I think I just stepped on a rock that was round and covered in algae, and I fell so slowly. Like it wasn't even like I fell in the exhibit. I just like slowly sat down into the water to the point where I don't remember who was with me, but they asked me if it was intentional. They're like, are you are good? Like tired, and it looked like I just sat. But my waiters filled up with water from the inside because they're waterproof both ways. And uh then I had to like hike out of the exhibit with my pants full of water. So I have sat down in an exhibit by actually slowly, very slowly, slowly. And I've almost fallen into otters more times than I can count, but thank goodness I haven't fallen in with those guys. That would not be fun. They probably would be scared, but we can't take that chance. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Well, thank you so much, Keisha, for coming on today. I love hearing about your role here at the Aquarium, and we're so thankful to you and your team for doing everything that you do, keeping us safe and keeping our animals safe too. And hopefully you'll come back on the podcast in the future and tell us more fun stories about what you forward to it because I was nervous in the beginning, but it it was perfect.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

It was fine. You did great. Just talk.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

I told you it was just talking. Yeah. Telling us funny stories, making us laugh, falling into an exhibit, naming the fish Michael. I gotta go see the fish.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

Yeah, I gotta see Michael. Michael will be the cover photo.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

What's his last name? Does he have a last name? Uh no, but I'll think of that. Okay, yeah. For next ponder. Ponder for next episode. We'll come back. Michael, teeth in the throat. It's all one word. Oh, is that French? What is that?

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Minister Teeth in the Throat.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

All right. Well, with that Thank you, Keisha.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

You're amazing. Thank you so much for coming on today.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Aquarium of the Pacific is brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. In 2023, the Aquarium celebrates 25 years of connecting millions of people worldwide to the beauty and wonder of our ocean planet. Head to aquariumofpacific.org to learn more about our 25th anniversary celebration. Keep up with the Aquarium on social media at Aquarium Pacific on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

This podcast is produced by Aaron Lundie, Madeline Walden, and Scott Shaw. Our music is by Andrew Reitzma, and our podcast art is by Brandi Kenney. Special thanks to Cecile Fisher, Anita Viez, and our audiovisual and education departments, and to all of our amazing podcast guests for taking time out of their day to talk about the important work that they do. Podcific wouldn't be possible without the support of the aquarium's donors, members, guests, and supporters. Thanks for listening.