*CALL FOR INTERNSHIP APPLICATIONS* (Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Clearwater, FL)
Clearwater Marine Aquarium conducts rescue, rehabilitation, and release efforts for sick or injured marine life. If rescued animals are deemed un-releasable due to their physical limitations or need for continuous care, Clearwater Marine Aquarium can provide permanent care for these animals. Clearwater Marine Aquarium offers intensive, hands on internships for individuals interested in particular aspects of the marine animal care field. The *Stranding Team Internship *provides interns with a unique opportunity to gain hands on experience in the response of live and dead dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and North American river otters. Intern responsibilities include, but are not limited to, assisting with the monitoring, rescue, transport, data collection, rehabilitation, release, and necropsy of stranded aquatic animals. Interns will also be given ample opportunities to further their skill sets relating to writing and public speaking. This will be achieved through duties such as writing weekly newsletters and presenting daily guest narrations. The Stranding Team seeks enthusiastic, dedicated, and hardworking individuals who are interested in promoting wildlife conservation through stranding efforts. The *Marine Mammal Training Internship* is designed to give individuals an inside look into what it takes to care for marine animals, with emphasis on common bottlenose dolphins, North American river otters and African great white pelican. During your internship, you will learn how to prepare diets, clean to USDA standards, maintain exhibits, provide enrichment/mental stimulation and give public presentations to educate our visitors as well as promote environmental conservation. Through a classroom lecture series, you will also learn how trainers use principles such as positive reinforcement, operant conditioning and shaping to train. Candidates should be able to perform physically demanding duties and ideally be enrolled in a four-year college program in psychology, biology, marine biology or another related field. Hands-on animal experience, such as volunteering at an animal shelter or completing other marine mammal internships at another facility is required. SCUBA, First Aid and CPR certification is also a plus. The *Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Internship* offers a hands-on learning experience caring for rehabilitating sea turtles as well as permanent residents at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Interns will be exposed to all aspects of the field including stranding, triage, food prep, exhibit maintenance, operating under USDA and FWC standards, animal restraint, basic target training, enrichment, daily husbandry and, occasionally, more extensive surgical procedures. Interns are able to practice many duties necessary for future animal care careers. After completing this internship, previous interns have used their experiences to gain employment in vet clinics or animal rehabilitation jobs, gained admission to veterinary school, or pursued educational and conservational outreach. The Sea Turtle department has an additional *Sea Turtle Nesting Internship*, in the summer only, designed to give interns an opportunity to perform field research that is reported to government agencies. Nesting interns will assist in patrol of about 25 miles of beach. Interns will conduct all aspects of sea turtle nesting including nest marking, night patrol, hatchling release, inventory, caging, data input, and much more. Clearwater Marine Aquarium offers 3 internship time frames annually. The Summer Internship runs from May through August. The application deadline for this internship is February 1st. To learn more about Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s animal care internships and how to apply, please visit the “About Us” page on www.seewinter.com and select the link for “Internships.”
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