Week 3: Working At The New York Aquarium

Welcome back to my blog everyone.

This week I began working at the Aquarium where I was assigned to teach visitors about pollution and what can be done. When I was working at this station, I began most conversations by asking the visitors what they already know about pollution since a majority of the visitors were young kids and teenagers. After I asked them and heard their responses, I would start by explaining what pollution was by leading the conversation into the Great Pacific Garbage patch like I talked about last week. I would explain how the trash gets into the water such as trash and plastic being disposed improperly, wind blowing trash, rivers, and shampoo products that get washed down the drain. Some shampoo products contained little toxic chemicals called microbeads which got washed down the drain and into the ocean causing harm to the sea life. Due to microbeads posing a problem to the ocean, the UK imposed a ban on shampoo products containing microbeads. Educating visitors about products such as these is a good method to show how some countries and communities are taking steps to reduce pollution.

While working at this station, I had an activity for visitors to participate in where I had four different types of trash and four different types of trash bins. I had visitors match each piece of trash in the correct bin. Once the visitors finished the activity I would explain how properly disposing trash might seem like its not making a difference but it actually is because of a few reasons. One reason is that trash which is properly disposed of will reduce the amount of micro plastics entering the water. Just one small plastic water bottle fully degraded into micro-plastics can actually harm at least three fish but if that bottle is recycled properly then the fish who could have eaten the bottle wouldn’t eat something harmful to them. Another reason is that when kids in the younger generations recycle and properly dispose of their trash, they will be seen as role models who can help inspire other kids and adults to do the same. Actions like these will help reduce the trash that’s currently in our ocean saving and conserving the ocean life. I always ask the visitors about ways they might be able to help and also educate other people about pollution impacting the ocean. In other words, I try to give them something to think about for the future.

This is how the first few shifts were for me at the aquarium, until next week.