seaworld: Dolphin Trainer

Dolphin Trainer

I think every child dreams of becoming a dolphin trainer when they grow up, but very few people really know what it takes. Today we're at San Diego Sea World where we're going to learn how to become a dolphin trainer. One of the world's most sought-after careers, dolphin trainers are a talented lot, combining a deep understanding of these intelligent ocean mammals with strong swimming and public speaking skills. To find out more, I joined Sea World's Dolphin Interaction program, where dolphin trainer Mary Sears showed me some basic training signals with resident dolphins Sandy and Ripley. After some fun moments in the pool, Mary explained some of the requirements for becoming a dolphin trainer. "What we look for here at Sea World are people who are very strong swimmers, at least 18 years of age who know how to scuba dive, people who are very comfortable with public speaking and we look for people who have a 4-year degree and possibly other animal experience." "Most of our trainers have backgrounds in either psychology or biology fields, but our training here is all on-the-job training. So there are some trainers who sometimes have a variety of backgrounds and then they come here and they learn it. According to Sea World, "Killer whales, dolphins, sea lions and other marine mammals are trained using operant conditioning and positive reinforcement. Operant conditioning is a method of behavior modification in which a subject is taught to behave in a desired manner and is ...