I'm leaving my job as an aquatic zoologist, and that's okay.

For the last 4 months, I've worked as a lead aquatic zoologist for a small non-profit aquarium. In the beginning, I knew that I wasn't going to make that much money, but I was okay with that, it was a non profit and I believed in it's goals. It was rough in the beginning, mostly because I was hired and never told exactly what expectations were for care of the tanks, just that I was caring for the tanks.

In the beginning, I had 26 tanks that I was expected to care and tend to. Every week, I'd water test and perform water changes (and gravel vac all of the tanks).

The first thing I noticed that was wrong, was that about 5 weeks in, I noticed quite a few blatant fire code violations that would have caused multiple problems for the people and animals. I'm not one to go out of my way to report problems like this but it was such a blatant fire hazard (photo) that I needed to say something.

I texted a photo to my boss and she said it wasn't a big issue, and I shouldn't be concerned. It was however, it could have turned into a fire.

The second issue I ran into, was that I wasn't given any testing supplies for water quality testing. I would ask for the time and support to be able to ensure that the aquariums would be healthy and safe for the fish, but it took nearly a month to get the supplies ordered. All that time, I did regular maintenance and other duties, but no way to know I was doing enough.

The third problem arose when our boss bought another building around the corner. And started to add more tanks to my requirements and pretty soon I was up to 36 tanks. (And 34 canister filters) And this other building had no water. So all water changes, and maintenance was supposed to be only out of necessity. Well, one of the tanks over in the new building is a 1500 gallon swimming pool with baby sharks (Threatened ESA). I told my boss that under normal circumstances, you should still do weekly water changes. He told me (politely) that I was wrong.

The 4th problem arose when I started asking about when I'll be getting my raise. My boss believed that all employees (no matter what degree status they have) should have a 90 day probation period, and after those 90 days, raises would be given to the agreed upon salary that was originally discussed. I was pushed off multiple times and was finally going to walk through with him on day 120.

The 5th problem I have run into was the amount of death. I'm okay with some death, it comes with the nature of running an aquarium. But I give a lot of pride to my college that I did my undergrad through, and feel like the best way to build a relationship with a college and interns, is providing samples to colleges that need them. We have plenty of samples to give, so that colleges can give a better overview and expose students to more taxonomic variation. My boss said specifically “ you can't give samples, because I don't want the knowledge that we kill fish to get out publicly”. I said we can do an anonymous donation, and I was told “I don't want that relationship, I didn't study fish and college and we turned out fine”

Leading up to the “walk through” (what he does to determine knowledge of the employee, that determines their raise.) I started researching what my position at other aquariums/ zoos would pay, and came to find that people who do less, (20 tanks maximum) get paid around 22$-32$ an hour to do what they do. I was promised 14 and just out of college, I thought that was okay, but it wasn't supposed to stay that way forever.

The second read flag I learned around this time was that according to an old employee that still helped with plumbing from time to time,that no one handled as many tanks and tasks as I do. They would be over their sections and handle those tanks, and that was their job. For the same salary I was being offered.

The third red flag was that an employee put in her two weeks on the husbandry team, and my boss never scheduled her again, basically making her quit that day. When I asked about hiring a new person to pick up the slack, I was told that isn't in the budget. This was AFTER he had invested well over $22,000 for a new building and all the reptiles for that building. I said that I don't think we will be able to continue to take care of all of the animals and expand without the animals/ fish quality of life suffering.

The final straw, and I guess reason for this post, was that I was supposed to do my walkthrough, and instead of a walk-through, I was pulled into a room where I was told, I am passionate, and really knowledgeable, but I don't belong here. Because of this, I'm not eligible for a raise and since I don't belong here, I should start to phased out.

Do I believe “I don't belong here?” Yes and no. I'm super knowledgeable and outspoken, it's my job to tell people that fish health is a problem and in that sense, I have a very blunt and hard personality. Tank health and animals lives are important to me. However, I have heard from multiple employees, that I do belong here, I'm the best aquatic zoologist they have ever seen and I'm incredibly valuable to the team. They also believe that my boss only says that I don't belong or “don't fit with the culture we are trying to build here” is because I tell him that aquariums are suffering because of the current state of staffing and that action needs to be taken.

Am I hurt? Yeah, I have grown to love and care for all of these animals and while I have been assured that they will manage without me, I'm convinced they won't. I have seen first hand that if they don't have people or time, they just don't care about the tasks that are second to staying in regulation with the USDA.

I'm okay though, to be honest, I think this whole experience has me convinced that I went to get my degree and my master's for the benefit of animals, not for the hassle of dealing with humans. I will find somewhere to “belong” even if I do it alone.

I'll be focusing on my channel and the community, and continuing to share my knowledge with the world.