May 7, 2024 • 32 mins
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.
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Episode Transcript
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Erin Lundy (00:05):
Hi, I'm Erin Lundy.
Madeline Walden (00:07):
And I'm Madeline Walden and this is
Aquarium of the Podcific, apodcast brought to you by
Aquarium of the Podcific.Southern California's largest
aquarium. Join
Erin Lundy (00:15):
us as we learn alongside the experts in animal
care, conservation and more.
Madeline Walden (00:22):
Welcome back to Aquarium of the Podcific. I'm
Madeline Walden, D Aquarians,digital content and community
manager.
Erin Lundy (00:27):
And I'm Erin Lundy, the conservation coordinator for
mammals and birds. I'm really
Madeline Walden (00:31):
excited about today's episode, we have one of
my favorite people at theaquarium, Keisha Leonard, she is
a supervisor in ourenvironmental services
department. And you might bewondering, what is the
Environmental ServicesDepartment, the Environmental
Services Department isresponsible for the care and
keeping around the aquarium. Um,so it was formerly housekeeping.
Now its environmental servicesbecause they do so much more.
Actually. It's it's inside andoutside that they are constantly
(00:55):
maintaining and cleaning andkeeping the space beautiful and
also safe for our guests, whichwe'll talk more about in today's
episode. Yeah, it's
Erin Lundy (01:02):
been really wonderful to work so closely
with this department that doesso much. And I think that they
are sometimes the unsung heroesof the aquarium in general
percent. They do so mucheverything is so pristinely
kept. And every time I know thatsomething is slightly amiss,
they are immediately there.
Madeline Walden (01:20):
Oh, yeah. If there is something smudge on one
of the exhibits, that team is onit in minutes. It's like they're
they're just hovering, they'reready to strike. Superheroes,
Erin Lundy (01:31):
honestly, really, every little thing. They're
like, I actually know exactlyhow to clean this. I don't know.
So as much as they have a lot ofdifferent things to work on. We
were so fortunate to have Keishaon and get to talk to her about
sort of what her job looks likeand some of the more fun aspects
of what she does. So it's apretty, it's a great episode. I
Madeline Walden (01:52):
think it's a really fun look inside of
working at the aquarium and whatit's like to be on her staff. So
I'm really excited for everybodyout here. It's on an animal
focus episode, but it's a reallycool inside look into aquarium
operations. And Keisha is justwonderful. I'm really excited
for everybody to get to know hertoo. And with that, we'll get
right everybody I want towelcome Keisha Leonard, our
(02:14):
environmental servicessupervisor onto the podcast
today. Hi, Keisha. Hi. Hello,can you tell us a little bit
about your job here at theAquarium? Yes,
Keisha Leonard (02:22):
you want to start from the beginning? Yeah,
please. Okay, so I startedworking here start like, yeah, I
started working here in April ofoh, five, April 13. Oh, five.
And when I started, I was just aregular housekeeper. It wasn't
environmental services. And itwas called housekeeping.
(02:43):
And after two months of workinghere, they asked me to be an
alternate lead. Oh, wow. Becauseyou're that good. And I was
shocked. I was literallyshocked. At that time, they
would call that leadshousekeeping one. One day I came
in, and my name was up there onthe
(03:03):
they didn't charge me. Theydidn't tell me. I was like,
you're gonna be asking me when Isaw it. And my manager. I know,
my supervisor at that time Icalled her and especially wasn't
there. And I was like, I thinkyou made a mistake on this
schedule. Like, no, I are incharge. Yeah. That was how long
that was in. Oh, 505. That wasan O five. Within a couple
(03:24):
months. You were already Yeah.After two months, after two
months of working here. Yeah.She saw something in me that I
didn't see what oh, I don'tregret it. That's awesome. So
then what? And then afterwards,two years of working here. I
became a full time lead. And soand I work swing, a swing shift.
(03:44):
I worked 311 30 And I did allthe events. The parties. I was
here when we did the first nightdive. Oh, yeah. It was so cool.
Erin Lundy (03:54):
Yeah, that's the first night I like it was
Keisha Leonard (03:57):
unexpected, because they didn't expect as
many people to show it. Oh, wow.I think they only had like two
one or two bars. And they werelines.
Madeline Walden (04:05):
Yeah, so for people who don't know what night
dive is. It's our it's myfavorite event. It's so good.
It's a party. So it's adultsonly it's 18. And over we have
bars, we have a live band. Wehave DJs in the galleries,
there's usually an artcomponent. It's just a really
fun night at the aquarium. Wehave a couple coming up there's
about six a year. So wheneveryou're listening to this,
(04:28):
there's likely one right aroundthe corner, but it is a really
cool event and I'm super jealousthat I missed the very first
one. I don't know if I was 18Yet
Keisha Leonard (04:36):
this one happened but yeah, my favorite
one is New Year's Eve one that'sYeah favorite. I love this
demon. I'm working I'm stillhere. It's I love it.
Madeline Walden (04:44):
You get to shoot one of the cannons right?
Yeah, and yeah,
Erin Lundy (04:47):
I didn't know. I've never been here for New Year's
Eve. New Year's Eve
Keisha Leonard (04:51):
you have is nice.
Erin Lundy (04:54):
Well, no Keisha does.
Madeline Walden (04:56):
There's more than one. There are several
Keisha Leonard (04:58):
staff that are working that night. Get Do the
candidates
Madeline Walden (05:01):
except me because I gotta record you guys
doing it but it's still fun.Yeah, even from my angle court
Erin Lundy (05:06):
it from your perspective of shooting
Madeline Walden (05:09):
POV you're shooting a confetti cannon at
New Year's Eve at the Aquariumof the Pacific. Hey, like, so
Okay, so you did the first nightdive. That's so cool. Yeah.
Keisha Leonard (05:20):
So I worked nights for six years. And then
the leader 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 asupervisor. And so that's where
I've been ever since. You'realmost coming up on your 20th
(05:42):
Yeah, no. 19 I'm comfortable.90. Yeah. And April and April.
Yeah, yeah.
Madeline Walden (05:46):
Yeah. So cool. How was the transition from
working nights today's Do youhave a preference? Do you kind
of like well, now I mean, I'msure there's pros and cons to
both, you know,
Keisha Leonard (05:55):
well, I've been working days longer than I did
nights. So I like days more now.I'm better. Yeah. Some people
they would ask me because for awhile, I would work nights once
a month. And so I worked daysand then we were switched me in
the supervisor. Well, there wasa late at night. We will switch
and some of the staff which oneyou like better? Which one you
(06:16):
like better? I'm like, I like mycheck better. That's what I
like.
Madeline Walden (06:24):
Do you have any, any spooky stories that
happened to my favorite time tobe here is that night, I think
it can be a little spookysometimes. But it's really
beautiful at night to at leastall the lights are still on?
Yeah, but the lights are it'sweird or scary. It's pretty
scary. Because
Keisha Leonard (06:43):
in the galleries, it gets pitch dark in
there, really. And sometimes wehave to go through Tropical to
go to the laundry room. And ifyou're in the midst of walking
and the lights go out, sometimesI will like stop in mid range
like oh my gosh, because youcan't see you can't see in front
of you. But one story I have. Itwas before they remodeled the
gift store Pacific collections.And we have to go in there and
(07:08):
clean their events sometimes. SoI'm up on a ladder on the far
side of the store closest to thegate in the walkway. And I'm up
on the ladder and all of asudden, a book from the far side
by the Great Hall comes off theshelf. Just one book just one
book.
Madeline Walden (07:25):
What was the book?
Keisha Leonard (07:28):
You know what? I don't even think I went over
there. But that was the only onethat you know, crazy story for
me like scary.
Erin Lundy (07:38):
That is scary. Why is it just one book? What
happened
Madeline Walden (07:43):
there's a couple of ghost stories or
Erin Lundy (07:48):
stories aquarium ghost episode on it. No.
Madeline Walden (07:55):
That's so funny. I think something that
would surprise me about theaquarium was that we do have a
laundry room. Yeah, like that'sjust something that I wouldn't
even think about. There'sactually several laundering
areas.
Keisha Leonard (08:07):
There is yeah,
Erin Lundy (08:08):
a lot of stuff we gotta wash. No, no.
Madeline Walden (08:10):
I also think it's really funny that the
majority like I feel like themajority of the items that you
clean with are actually babydiapers, right? Yeah,
Keisha Leonard (08:17):
we do use baby diapers. They, you'd be
surprised how good they cleanthe acrylic. And they clean
glass. And they just they dry upspills quicker. You know, when
they absorb the babies.
Madeline Walden (08:31):
And they're reusable, that we're not talking
we're not using, you know,diaper diapers. But it's so
funny because sometimes we'll bewalking around just to hear
someone like, Oh, can you grabme a diaper? And it's just like
one of those things. I have toremind myself like, no, that's
normal here, but
Erin Lundy (08:43):
that's normal. And so we probably say that in front
of guests all the time.
Hey, can you go grab me a diaperreal quick?
Madeline Walden (08:50):
We mean, we're a big family. Yeah. Whatever you
need to you know, you can askanyone in a blue shirt.
Erin Lundy (08:57):
A diaper, please. I guess I never really appreciate
it. So I just know the mostlike, you know, they're like
white rags that we used to cleanand I know we call them diapers,
but I don't think I made theleap in my head that they are
actually used typically as likecloth diapers and yeah, it makes
a lot of sense. It's never
Keisha Leonard (09:12):
easy for your time.
Erin Lundy (09:14):
I think I was a disposables baby, which is
probably not great for theenvironment. But hey, now wasn't
Madeline Walden (09:20):
your choice.
Erin Lundy (09:21):
You don't know. You don't know how old I was. Baby
was last year. That is yourchoice. Yeah, that's my job.
That's interesting. I just IYeah. Can you grab me a diaper?
Never thought that phrase.
Madeline Walden (09:36):
I hear that 17 times a day. Maybe you should do
something
Keisha Leonard (09:43):
for you to know how many times a day to work on
that.
Erin Lundy (09:49):
Island. I don't know what I'm figuring things out. 17
Madeline Walden (09:56):
Well back to Keisha. What do you think are
some things about your job? thatwould surprise our listeners. Oh
Keisha Leonard (10:02):
my gosh. That we also do like gardening around
here. We, when they sayenvironmental services, we do a
lot of full environment. Yeah,the inside and out. I'm
responsible to water the plantsin the front, really. And then
we go through and we like, wecut the weeds and Shark Lagoon
we cut branches that areovergrown sometimes we cut the
(10:26):
weeds around the front Plaza. Soyeah, I think that would be
surprised because we, you know,housekeeping, but we also go out
and do gardening as well.
Madeline Walden (10:35):
I external keeping outside the house, it's
your Well, yeah, I mean, on topof that, I've seen your team on
the boom, lift the boom, lift.Yeah. I'm cleaning the glass
blue glass. Yeah. Yeah, makingit very beautiful.
Keisha Leonard (10:51):
And I cleaned the one inside the blue glass
inside. On that scissor. Oh,yeah. I personally clean that
one myself.
Erin Lundy (10:57):
Is it nice? Like the view from up there though? Like
if you look down? Or is it morescary? Because it's so high?
Keisha Leonard (11:03):
Depends on how high you are? Because the view
can look nice. When you're at acertain level. Yeah, when you
get I'm not trying to look down.Come down.
Erin Lundy (11:13):
I'm not trying to be fair. I just always see all out
there. And I'm just like, wow,that is such a crazy component
of your job to be like 50 feetin the air. Yeah. The glass
outside really often, too. Yeah.How often does the PV Glascott?
Clean?
Keisha Leonard (11:30):
We don't have a set schedule. I would say as
needed. Okay. Yeah, I would sayas needed. They're
Madeline Walden (11:35):
kind of like a typical day in your role, or is
it really different every singletime you walk in here?
Keisha Leonard (11:41):
No, I would say it's about the same for the most
part. There are times when itchanges. But for the most part,
it's the same. And I thinkbecause I've been doing it for
so long. It's like secondnature. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.
So anything that takes us out ofthe ordinary, it does not
surprise me. Because my it isthe juggling. Well,
Madeline Walden (12:00):
yeah. Yeah, another day. Well, okay. Well,
speaking of things that were notin your nature, and not in
anyone's nature, as during thepandemic, when we were closed
and preparing to reopen yourteam was crucial to not only
keeping our staff safe, but tokeeping our guests safe. Safe,
too. What was that like for youand your team? Yeah. Yeah, maybe
(12:21):
from just the beginning ofclosing? And how did how was
that? It
Keisha Leonard (12:26):
was it was challenging. Because I think the
there was a lot of parts thatwas like, so heart wrenching.
And there were a lot of timeswhen it's like, are we ever
going to open back up? But fromthe beginning, it was
unbelievable. First of all, itwas unbelievable that the world
(12:48):
was shutting down. Yeah, youknow. And then you hear all
these stories, you're hearingall that news, and you're
hearing all these stories, andyou don't know what actually is
going to happen. But I rememberthe day we actually had to send
all of our staff. It was sad,because there was guys that we
had hired like, oh my gosh, no,there were guys that we had just
(13:12):
hired, like, super recently. Andhe was like, Am I losing my job?
And I was like, Oh, my gosh, andI had to be the one to sit there
until, you know, that's that wasreally hard. And I it really, I
don't, it really didn't hit metoo. Right now. I'm about a
dozen like, Yeah, well,
Madeline Walden (13:29):
because I think we are all in such a just go
forward. Yeah, just like youcan't really stop to think about
it because we this is somethingthat's never happened before.
Yeah, no. And so it's justimmediately adapting to the
situation. Yeah. And when youreview it, you're like, I How,
how did we go?
Erin Lundy (13:44):
Traumatic forever. You know, I think we had to
block a lot of it out for sure.
Keisha Leonard (13:48):
Yeah, sure. And so me and Alfie we were here
like full time we weren't sevento four every day. And because
me and Alfie started where westarted out we can go in the
restrooms and clean them with noproblem, you know, so we were
responsible to take care of therestrooms, but we it was a time
where we had to dust all thegalleries. So we dusted
(14:09):
everywhere we got in here, thecrew that we did have everybody
just you know, we just intoevery nook and cranny, then it
was like, it was like a desertin here. You know, I remember
walking through shark lagoon oneday and it was a windstorm. And
literally we had liketumbleweeds everything had
accumulated into a big ol ballwas like we are deserted. Yeah,
(14:33):
this place is deserted. So itwas scary not knowing if we were
going to have a backup. Yeah,you know, it
Erin Lundy (14:38):
was one of my favorite but also weirdest
things during COVID is justlike, when we were fully closed,
the animals noticed. And anytimeany person would walk by they
were so interested in what wewere doing because like how
human you know, the penguinswould chase you back and it was
so weird to see these animalslike genuinely they Notice the
(15:00):
difference and their behaviorchanged as a result of it. And
it's just not something I everthink about of how enriching it
must be for some of theseanimals to see people every day
interact with them. And thenjust immediately that was gone.
And so I think the penguins wereone of the happiest that people
came back, and then chase one ofour sea lions in the tunnel,
right? So he's playing withpeople, time anyone walks
through the tunnel, Chase wouldjust line up and be ready to go.
Madeline Walden (15:23):
Play with them. So a lot of time, I'm sure. I'm
sure he was very happy with allof the staff, you know, we were
definitely a smaller crew. Butyou know, there was there was
people around and so it wasweird. It was a weird time. It
was really weird. But yeah, thatis a joyful spot for me to and
during that time as like, thoseinteractions with the animals
and seeing the aquarium emptyand kind of having it to
(15:45):
yourself in a way to Yeah, itwas odd. Yeah. So while we're
while we were close, you andAlfie were mainly on site
keeping up because we startedpeople here, you know, and
there's upkeep to do externallytoo, and all the things that you
guys do. So how was thetransition once we open to the
public?
Keisha Leonard (16:02):
So then we started using like, these were
they called?
Madeline Walden (16:08):
I was hoping to talk.
Keisha Leonard (16:11):
I can't remember the actual name we had for it.
But we had these Miss guns, wewould go in there and disinfect
the restaurants. And then wealso made bleach water for the
acrylic, we wipe that down everyhour. Or every hour, every hour.
And every hour, we would go outand disinfect the the sides of
the shark tanks. Did you guysever see us with the generators?
(16:32):
Yes, steamer? Yeah. Yeah. Thatwas that was challenging, very
challenging, because we'd haveto move everybody back. Yeah,
you know, we would do sharklagoon and the race. So that was
yeah, that was really
Madeline Walden (16:45):
challenging is are such an important department
really keeping us safe,especially during it's such a
scary time where you know, likesurfaces are scary. touching
anything is scary. But you know,we it's so wonderful that we
were able to reopen and have ouryou know, our visitors back on
site, and also be able to keepthem safe at the same time. So
we have your team to thank forthat.
Erin Lundy (17:05):
Yeah, I really do appreciate so much.
Madeline Walden (17:09):
I was hoping you were going to talk about
those Mr. Guns because theylook, I still use them at all,
or
Keisha Leonard (17:13):
no, we haven't used them in a while. Yeah, no.
We use them up we use. They'vegone.
Madeline Walden (17:25):
So funny. I think people would be really
surprised to learn about all ofthe ways your department has to
adapt to the strange surfaces.We do have here. Because we have
acrylic, which can't be scrubbedor right, it can't have
abrasive. Right, right. Sothat's something you have to be
really mindful of. And then ofcourse, on top of that you have
the health and safety of ouranimals to consider right. So
(17:46):
what are some things and whatare some precautions you guys
have to take for those oh, whatother people wouldn't do with
their normal job.
Keisha Leonard (17:54):
So like in Shark shark lagoon, we do the glass
out there, there's differentglass like at the Animal Care
Center, and then the thejellyfish, so we use water, we
have to use water because wecan't cross contaminate,
especially like overwaterviewing where the sharks are, we
have to use water because if ifyou use the 543 the glass
(18:15):
cleaner, it would get in thetank and cross contaminate. So
we use the water the squeegee,and we just we do it about 17
times a day.
Now with the acrylic, we usediapers, because towels will
scratch it. You know
Madeline Walden (18:36):
that's why we use it. It's not necessarily
like they're just absorbent,it's softer
Keisha Leonard (18:40):
that we cannot use towels on the acrylic we
have to use diapers, we don'tuse squeegees on the acrylic
because that can scratch it aswell. We're very, you know,
mindful of what we use on theacrylic and we put a wet diaper
wet diaper on there. And thenyou go over it with a driveway.
And it gets the fingerprints andeverything. Yeah.
Madeline Walden (18:58):
Okay, well speaking of animals, do you get
to interact with animals a lotin your position? Or do you have
any fun animal stories? Um, doyou have a favorite and love?
Keisha Leonard (19:07):
I love the sea otters? They are so cute. But
they don't interact with me thatmuch unless I'm walking through
early in the morning. Like
Madeline Walden (19:16):
they do do the first thing in the morning
that's my favorite time to seethem because they're just like,
hey, yeah
Keisha Leonard (19:25):
but I do have a favorite animal. Oh my gosh, I
can't believe I'm sorry MichaelI'm sorry my god Michael is a
parrot fish. His name is MichaelI named him Michael
accidentally. You guys
Madeline Walden (19:43):
I hadn't heard about you accidentally days that
the big the big. The Big Fish.
Keisha Leonard (19:50):
Fish. Oh my gosh. Can
Erin Lundy (19:51):
you please tell me how you accidentally?
Keisha Leonard (19:54):
I'm gonna tell you. It was during COVID Yeah.
Okay, so I had read up on him tosee you know, I liked that he
his defense mechanism. He covershimself in a like, what is it? A
mask like a Joe he like a mucusmucus. Yeah. And he eats coral
(20:14):
and his teeth are in the back ofhis neck.
Erin Lundy (20:17):
So he can like to kind of thing.
Keisha Leonard (20:19):
So Nate was coming through Nate from
husbandry, he's coming through.We're right there. And I can't
remember exactly what words weexchanged but I thought he said
his name was Michael
Erin Lundy (20:35):
Senior Director of Husbandry be like, yeah, it's
Michael.
Keisha Leonard (20:41):
But like I said, I can't remember the
conversation we were having, butI heard my
Madeline Walden (20:47):
therefore. And so.
Keisha Leonard (20:52):
So, some of the staff from husbandry they you
know, like, Okay, well, we'llcall Michael. Every time someone
who doesn't know Michael comesthrough there I introduced him
to Michael
Madeline Walden (21:05):
Okay, well, if you come visit the Aquarium of
the Pacific, and you go into ourtropical gallery, Michael is
located inside of our coralpredators habitat, so it's the
biggest one. He's the bigbeautiful Yes, you can't miss
him. He's
Erin Lundy (21:18):
y'all know Mike.
Keisha Leonard (21:21):
He looks like a Michael.
Erin Lundy (21:24):
Michael and
Madeline Walden (21:25):
Michael Michaels out there. You're
beautiful, right? You
Erin Lundy (21:29):
look like you've got a lot of fish covered in you.
Like you have teeth in yourthroat. Every Michael out there.
Congratulations on pooping.
Madeline Walden (21:44):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah,
Erin Lundy (21:48):
that's a good story that So Michael is your
favorite. Michael
Keisha Leonard (21:50):
is my favorite.
Erin Lundy (21:51):
I guess that he's so beautiful. He might be my
favorite.
Madeline Walden (21:54):
I think so. I
Keisha Leonard (21:55):
think when you leave here you need to go up to
checkout.
Erin Lundy (21:58):
You're gonna go to Michael field trip we should
talk about Michael. We really?Now that we know
Madeline Walden (22:03):
you're right. Right. I learned so much of this
podcast, including about my
Keisha Leonard (22:07):
right and she
Erin Lundy (22:08):
said that's all animals with human names and be
like, who's Michael? Zoom in onthe fish? Who's Parker and then
a lion?
Madeline Walden (22:15):
Like was so funny. Like Parker, I don't know
why that makes more sense to me.i We have I think they call the
balloon fish. Fred. I've heardto the fish and tropical. Mr. Mu
Mr. MooMoo. Mr. MooMoo?
Erin Lundy (22:29):
Oh, I'm sorry. There's two moves. I did not
know.
Madeline Walden (22:31):
Have you gotten to meet any animals have close
before?
Keisha Leonard (22:34):
I'm one of the sea lions. He was Miller. Oh,
really? Yeah. Yeah.
Erin Lundy (22:40):
Miller was our big dominant male before Parker. I
never met him. But I've seen alot of pictures. There's, I
guess, Linda, who's one of ourlongtime volunteers was telling
me this story about how Millerused to sleep in front of the
door to so that people wouldcome in and feed them. And he
would just go take a nap infront of the door. No, and so no
one could get out. So he waslike, you gotta feed me forever.
(23:03):
Yeah, and he would just go tosleep. That's actually a great
idea. I think some good ideas.
Madeline Walden (23:09):
I think the number one question we got for
you is people want to know allabout cleaning the blue whale.
And by the blue whale, I mean,our blue whale model that hangs
in our Great Hall. It was placedthere in 1998. I think when
right before we opened, and itdoesn't come down. It is up
there. So it's life size. Andits life size, like
Erin Lundy (23:30):
accurate to a blue whale, the largest mammal on the
planet is hanging from theceiling, oils actually dating to
Madeline Walden (23:37):
Wales. And so just like everywhere else in the
aquarium that, you know, can getmaybe dusty time to time or you
know, no one's up there touchingit at least. But how do we clean
something that's hanging fromthe ceiling? It's in the middle
of the ceiling, right? Yeah.
Erin Lundy (23:52):
Right. So
Keisha Leonard (23:52):
we have to get on the scissor lift. And there's
usually two people I've been upthere numerous times. Me and
Alfie Alfie has been up therewith Nicole, we've been up there
with other staff members. Andit's, it seems it's easy for us.
But it might seem hard when Iyou know, we use dusters. And we
just tediously go in sections,until we get the desk off that
(24:15):
you know, section and we move onto the next.
Madeline Walden (24:20):
You start from the head and the tail or we
start at
Keisha Leonard (24:22):
the tail. And we do one side. And we go on all
the way over. And then we comeon the other side and do the
whole side. I
Madeline Walden (24:28):
haven't found anything up there before that
means playing
Keisha Leonard (24:31):
airplane.
Madeline Walden (24:32):
I was gonna say
Erin Lundy (24:35):
I wonder where those came from
Keisha Leonard (24:37):
tomorrow. Yeah,
Madeline Walden (24:38):
we have a paper airplane contest in the morning
sometime here before we open soI've seen several paper
airplanes. And how often do weclean the blue whale once a
year? Usually, here's a coupletimes now I will say a couple
times a year four times. Soyeah, sometimes you know it'll
happen because you guys areabout to are you about to clean
it or do you just finish
Keisha Leonard (24:56):
now they're doing it. They're like, painting
it.
Madeline Walden (25:00):
Oh, wow. Oh yeah,
Keisha Leonard (25:03):
you're painting. Last night
Madeline Walden (25:05):
news drop on Aquarium of the Podcific the
whale is getting a makeover.Yeah, that's exciting. So okay,
so then we're gonna do Okay, sothen that'll at least align with
the cleaning of it and our paperairplane contest does end up
there on the dome. So you guysget up there and you dust it.
Meticulously excited to see whatit'll look like painted. Is that
(25:28):
the first time we paint since
Keisha Leonard (25:30):
I've been here? Wow. almost 19 years I've been
here. Never been at it.
Erin Lundy (25:33):
How are they painting? Are they gonna take it
down? No, they're gonna go upand like,
Madeline Walden (25:38):
that's great. Thank you.
Keisha Leonard (25:39):
I could probably spray it.
Erin Lundy (25:41):
Yeah. Oh, that makes way more sense. It's like a
little brighter. When
Keisha Leonard (25:46):
you go out there. If you look on the far
side, you can see where theyactually started doing some
sanding. I
Erin Lundy (25:52):
love this. Yeah, just getting good to eat like I
didn't know. That's cool. It'sgonna be pink changes. It's not
a blue whale anymore.
Madeline Walden (26:08):
That's amazing. Well, I
Erin Lundy (26:09):
have can I please ask
Ben Brown dying to ask about. Soearlier we asked Keisha. Hey, do
you have any stories that arefunny about your time here and
Keisha said that one time,something really funny happened.
And I have been just dying allday to hear the story. So
Keisha, will you please tell usa story. And I'm so excited.
(26:33):
You're shaking, I knowvibrating. Like, this is gonna
be good.
Keisha Leonard (26:37):
I was thinking about that. And when you guys
like stories, I'm like, I onlyhave one. And this was like the
funniest dishes, the one. So Iwas working swing shift. And a
lot of times I'm swing shift, wedo a lot of testing in the
galleries as well. Before COVIDAfter COVID and our changing
Gallery, which is now artgallery. It was our changing
(27:00):
gallery. I forgot what it wascalled then, but it had raised
round raising it. The smallones. Remember they have the
touch tank and familiar with thetouch number. And the door to
get into the back of the roundraise was locked. And I'm like,
I need to get in this over here.I could have called Security I
(27:22):
can just climb over. So theywill put these plastic covers on
it at night. And I tookinitiative to climb over the
plastic covers. And right when Igot in the middle, they broke
and I weighed not to mentionAlfie was with me. And he was
(27:44):
laughing like crazy. He made mefeel so bad. I was Oh my gosh.
My phone was in my pocketeverything. So I was so I had to
go home and change.
Erin Lundy (27:57):
The fact that I waited till you were in bed
could have broken right away andI would not have been soaked but
so
Keisha Leonard (28:03):
I can say I swam with the race.
Erin Lundy (28:07):
And my goodness, actually that is a better story
than I was like we're possiblyfalling in all the context was.
I fell into it. Yeah, I'll
Madeline Walden (28:16):
tell you about it later. You okay with the
race? Okay, yeah, we were allOkay, good.
Erin Lundy (28:23):
You had a heart to heart while you're down there.
How you guys are good. I'm gonnago home and Michael while you're
done
Madeline Walden (28:38):
that's incredible. That's so much
Erin Lundy (28:44):
that's a really good.
Madeline Walden (28:45):
Have you ever fallen into it? Um,
Erin Lundy (28:48):
I? I've slowly
Yeah, well, it's always theworst. If you fall and you're
like, Well, I slipped in thenyou're like, cool. I just You
just see Yeah, but there's beena time so on our sea lion.
pinnipeds exhibit we havealleged that we cleaned the
acrylic from the inside. And weuse diapers and water. But it's
slippery. And so it's an unevensurface because it's like a rock
(29:11):
surface. And so I was walking onit in waders which are also
like, not very like gripfriendly. And I think I just
stepped on a rock that was roundand covered and algae. And I
fell so slowly. Like it wasn'teven like, oh, I fell in the
exam. I just like slowly satdown
to the point where I don'tremember who was with me, but
(29:32):
they asked me if it wasintentional. They're like, are
you are good. Like I just mywaiters filled up with water.
Because they're waterproof bothways. And then I had to like
hike out of the exhibit was mypants full of water. So I have
sat down in an exhibit. slowly,very slowly. I've almost fallen
(29:53):
into otters more times than Ican count but thank goodness I
haven't. I would not be fun.They probably would be scared.
But we can't take that chance.No, no.
Madeline Walden (30:03):
Well, thank you so much Keisha for coming on
today. I love hearing about yourrole here at the Aquarium and
we're so thankful to you andyour team for doing everything
that you do keeping us safe andkeeping our animals safe too.
And hopefully, you'll come backon the podcast in the future and
tell us more fun stories. Yeah.What'd you forward to
Keisha Leonard (30:18):
it? Because I was nervous in the beginning,
but it was perfect. It was fine.You just taught
Madeline Walden (30:24):
I told you it's just talking.
Erin Lundy (30:26):
Yeah. Telling us funny stories making us laugh
falling into naming the fishMichael. I gotta go see
Madeline Walden (30:34):
ya see Michael Michael be the cover photo.
Erin Lundy (30:36):
What's your last name? Does he have a last name?
Madeline Walden (30:39):
No, but I would think of it okay. Yeah, for next
month
Erin Lundy (30:41):
or for next up.
Keisha Leonard (30:46):
Teeth in the throat
Erin Lundy (30:49):
that's all one word.
Madeline Walden (31:01):
Thank you so much for coming on today.
Aquarium of the Podcific isbrought to you by Aquarium of
the Podcific a 501 C threenonprofit organization in 2023.
The aquarium celebrates 25 yearsof connecting millions of people
worldwide to the beauty andwonder of our ocean planet. Head
(31:22):
to aquarium of pacific.org tolearn more about our 25th
anniversary celebration. Keep upwith the aquarium on social
media at aquarium Pacific onTiktok Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn.
Erin Lundy (31:33):
This podcast is produced by Erin Lundy, Madeline
Walden and Scott Shaw. Our musicis by Andrew Wright's MA and our
podcast art is by Brandy Kenny,special thanks to Cecile Fisher
and Isa vias and our audiovisual and education departments
and to all of our amazingpodcast guests for taking time
out of their day to talk aboutthe important work that they do.
Pod cific wouldn't be possiblewithout the support of the
(31:54):
aquarium stoners, members,guests and supporters. Thanks
for listening
Hi, I'm Erin Lundy.
Madeline Walden (00:07):
And I'm Madeline Walden and this is
Aquarium of the Podcific, apodcast brought to you by
Aquarium of the Podcific.Southern California's largest
aquarium. Join
Erin Lundy (00:15):
us as we learn alongside the experts in animal
care, conservation and more.
Madeline Walden (00:22):
Welcome back to Aquarium of the Podcific. I'm
Madeline Walden, D Aquarians,digital content and community
manager.
Erin Lundy (00:27):
And I'm Erin Lundy, the conservation coordinator for
mammals and birds. I'm really
Madeline Walden (00:31):
excited about today's episode, we have one of
my favorite people at theaquarium, Keisha Leonard, she is
a supervisor in ourenvironmental services
department. And you might bewondering, what is the
Environmental ServicesDepartment, the Environmental
Services Department isresponsible for the care and
keeping around the aquarium. Um,so it was formerly housekeeping.
Now its environmental servicesbecause they do so much more.
Actually. It's it's inside andoutside that they are constantly
(00:55):
maintaining and cleaning andkeeping the space beautiful and
also safe for our guests, whichwe'll talk more about in today's
episode. Yeah, it's
Erin Lundy (01:02):
been really wonderful to work so closely
with this department that doesso much. And I think that they
are sometimes the unsung heroesof the aquarium in general
percent. They do so mucheverything is so pristinely
kept. And every time I know thatsomething is slightly amiss,
they are immediately there.
Madeline Walden (01:20):
Oh, yeah. If there is something smudge on one
of the exhibits, that team is onit in minutes. It's like they're
they're just hovering, they'reready to strike. Superheroes,
Erin Lundy (01:31):
honestly, really, every little thing. They're
like, I actually know exactlyhow to clean this. I don't know.
So as much as they have a lot ofdifferent things to work on. We
were so fortunate to have Keishaon and get to talk to her about
sort of what her job looks likeand some of the more fun aspects
of what she does. So it's apretty, it's a great episode. I
Madeline Walden (01:52):
think it's a really fun look inside of
working at the aquarium and whatit's like to be on her staff. So
I'm really excited for everybodyout here. It's on an animal
focus episode, but it's a reallycool inside look into aquarium
operations. And Keisha is justwonderful. I'm really excited
for everybody to get to know hertoo. And with that, we'll get
right everybody I want towelcome Keisha Leonard, our
(02:14):
environmental servicessupervisor onto the podcast
today. Hi, Keisha. Hi. Hello,can you tell us a little bit
about your job here at theAquarium? Yes,
Keisha Leonard (02:22):
you want to start from the beginning? Yeah,
please. Okay, so I startedworking here start like, yeah, I
started working here in April ofoh, five, April 13. Oh, five.
And when I started, I was just aregular housekeeper. It wasn't
environmental services. And itwas called housekeeping.
(02:43):
And after two months of workinghere, they asked me to be an
alternate lead. Oh, wow. Becauseyou're that good. And I was
shocked. I was literallyshocked. At that time, they
would call that leadshousekeeping one. One day I came
in, and my name was up there onthe
(03:03):
they didn't charge me. Theydidn't tell me. I was like,
you're gonna be asking me when Isaw it. And my manager. I know,
my supervisor at that time Icalled her and especially wasn't
there. And I was like, I thinkyou made a mistake on this
schedule. Like, no, I are incharge. Yeah. That was how long
that was in. Oh, 505. That wasan O five. Within a couple
(03:24):
months. You were already Yeah.After two months, after two
months of working here. Yeah.She saw something in me that I
didn't see what oh, I don'tregret it. That's awesome. So
then what? And then afterwards,two years of working here. I
became a full time lead. And soand I work swing, a swing shift.
(03:44):
I worked 311 30 And I did allthe events. The parties. I was
here when we did the first nightdive. Oh, yeah. It was so cool.
Erin Lundy (03:54):
Yeah, that's the first night I like it was
Keisha Leonard (03:57):
unexpected, because they didn't expect as
many people to show it. Oh, wow.I think they only had like two
one or two bars. And they werelines.
Madeline Walden (04:05):
Yeah, so for people who don't know what night
dive is. It's our it's myfavorite event. It's so good.
It's a party. So it's adultsonly it's 18. And over we have
bars, we have a live band. Wehave DJs in the galleries,
there's usually an artcomponent. It's just a really
fun night at the aquarium. Wehave a couple coming up there's
about six a year. So wheneveryou're listening to this,
(04:28):
there's likely one right aroundthe corner, but it is a really
cool event and I'm super jealousthat I missed the very first
one. I don't know if I was 18Yet
Keisha Leonard (04:36):
this one happened but yeah, my favorite
one is New Year's Eve one that'sYeah favorite. I love this
demon. I'm working I'm stillhere. It's I love it.
Madeline Walden (04:44):
You get to shoot one of the cannons right?
Yeah, and yeah,
Erin Lundy (04:47):
I didn't know. I've never been here for New Year's
Eve. New Year's Eve
Keisha Leonard (04:51):
you have is nice.
Erin Lundy (04:54):
Well, no Keisha does.
Madeline Walden (04:56):
There's more than one. There are several
Keisha Leonard (04:58):
staff that are working that night. Get Do the
candidates
Madeline Walden (05:01):
except me because I gotta record you guys
doing it but it's still fun.Yeah, even from my angle court
Erin Lundy (05:06):
it from your perspective of shooting
Madeline Walden (05:09):
POV you're shooting a confetti cannon at
New Year's Eve at the Aquariumof the Pacific. Hey, like, so
Okay, so you did the first nightdive. That's so cool. Yeah.
Keisha Leonard (05:20):
So I worked nights for six years. And then
the leader 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 asupervisor. And so that's where
I've been ever since. You'realmost coming up on your 20th
(05:42):
Yeah, no. 19 I'm comfortable.90. Yeah. And April and April.
Yeah, yeah.
Madeline Walden (05:46):
Yeah. So cool. How was the transition from
working nights today's Do youhave a preference? Do you kind
of like well, now I mean, I'msure there's pros and cons to
both, you know,
Keisha Leonard (05:55):
well, I've been working days longer than I did
nights. So I like days more now.I'm better. Yeah. Some people
they would ask me because for awhile, I would work nights once
a month. And so I worked daysand then we were switched me in
the supervisor. Well, there wasa late at night. We will switch
and some of the staff which oneyou like better? Which one you
(06:16):
like better? I'm like, I like mycheck better. That's what I
like.
Madeline Walden (06:24):
Do you have any, any spooky stories that
happened to my favorite time tobe here is that night, I think
it can be a little spookysometimes. But it's really
beautiful at night to at leastall the lights are still on?
Yeah, but the lights are it'sweird or scary. It's pretty
scary. Because
Keisha Leonard (06:43):
in the galleries, it gets pitch dark in
there, really. And sometimes wehave to go through Tropical to
go to the laundry room. And ifyou're in the midst of walking
and the lights go out, sometimesI will like stop in mid range
like oh my gosh, because youcan't see you can't see in front
of you. But one story I have. Itwas before they remodeled the
gift store Pacific collections.And we have to go in there and
(07:08):
clean their events sometimes. SoI'm up on a ladder on the far
side of the store closest to thegate in the walkway. And I'm up
on the ladder and all of asudden, a book from the far side
by the Great Hall comes off theshelf. Just one book just one
book.
Madeline Walden (07:25):
What was the book?
Keisha Leonard (07:28):
You know what? I don't even think I went over
there. But that was the only onethat you know, crazy story for
me like scary.
Erin Lundy (07:38):
That is scary. Why is it just one book? What
happened
Madeline Walden (07:43):
there's a couple of ghost stories or
Erin Lundy (07:48):
stories aquarium ghost episode on it. No.
Madeline Walden (07:55):
That's so funny. I think something that
would surprise me about theaquarium was that we do have a
laundry room. Yeah, like that'sjust something that I wouldn't
even think about. There'sactually several laundering
areas.
Keisha Leonard (08:07):
There is yeah,
Erin Lundy (08:08):
a lot of stuff we gotta wash. No, no.
Madeline Walden (08:10):
I also think it's really funny that the
majority like I feel like themajority of the items that you
clean with are actually babydiapers, right? Yeah,
Keisha Leonard (08:17):
we do use baby diapers. They, you'd be
surprised how good they cleanthe acrylic. And they clean
glass. And they just they dry upspills quicker. You know, when
they absorb the babies.
Madeline Walden (08:31):
And they're reusable, that we're not talking
we're not using, you know,diaper diapers. But it's so
funny because sometimes we'll bewalking around just to hear
someone like, Oh, can you grabme a diaper? And it's just like
one of those things. I have toremind myself like, no, that's
normal here, but
Erin Lundy (08:43):
that's normal. And so we probably say that in front
of guests all the time.
Hey, can you go grab me a diaperreal quick?
Madeline Walden (08:50):
We mean, we're a big family. Yeah. Whatever you
need to you know, you can askanyone in a blue shirt.
Erin Lundy (08:57):
A diaper, please. I guess I never really appreciate
it. So I just know the mostlike, you know, they're like
white rags that we used to cleanand I know we call them diapers,
but I don't think I made theleap in my head that they are
actually used typically as likecloth diapers and yeah, it makes
a lot of sense. It's never
Keisha Leonard (09:12):
easy for your time.
Erin Lundy (09:14):
I think I was a disposables baby, which is
probably not great for theenvironment. But hey, now wasn't
Madeline Walden (09:20):
your choice.
Erin Lundy (09:21):
You don't know. You don't know how old I was. Baby
was last year. That is yourchoice. Yeah, that's my job.
That's interesting. I just IYeah. Can you grab me a diaper?
Never thought that phrase.
Madeline Walden (09:36):
I hear that 17 times a day. Maybe you should do
something
Keisha Leonard (09:43):
for you to know how many times a day to work on
that.
Erin Lundy (09:49):
Island. I don't know what I'm figuring things out. 17
Madeline Walden (09:56):
Well back to Keisha. What do you think are
some things about your job? thatwould surprise our listeners. Oh
Keisha Leonard (10:02):
my gosh. That we also do like gardening around
here. We, when they sayenvironmental services, we do a
lot of full environment. Yeah,the inside and out. I'm
responsible to water the plantsin the front, really. And then
we go through and we like, wecut the weeds and Shark Lagoon
we cut branches that areovergrown sometimes we cut the
(10:26):
weeds around the front Plaza. Soyeah, I think that would be
surprised because we, you know,housekeeping, but we also go out
and do gardening as well.
Madeline Walden (10:35):
I external keeping outside the house, it's
your Well, yeah, I mean, on topof that, I've seen your team on
the boom, lift the boom, lift.Yeah. I'm cleaning the glass
blue glass. Yeah. Yeah, makingit very beautiful.
Keisha Leonard (10:51):
And I cleaned the one inside the blue glass
inside. On that scissor. Oh,yeah. I personally clean that
one myself.
Erin Lundy (10:57):
Is it nice? Like the view from up there though? Like
if you look down? Or is it morescary? Because it's so high?
Keisha Leonard (11:03):
Depends on how high you are? Because the view
can look nice. When you're at acertain level. Yeah, when you
get I'm not trying to look down.Come down.
Erin Lundy (11:13):
I'm not trying to be fair. I just always see all out
there. And I'm just like, wow,that is such a crazy component
of your job to be like 50 feetin the air. Yeah. The glass
outside really often, too. Yeah.How often does the PV Glascott?
Clean?
Keisha Leonard (11:30):
We don't have a set schedule. I would say as
needed. Okay. Yeah, I would sayas needed. They're
Madeline Walden (11:35):
kind of like a typical day in your role, or is
it really different every singletime you walk in here?
Keisha Leonard (11:41):
No, I would say it's about the same for the most
part. There are times when itchanges. But for the most part,
it's the same. And I thinkbecause I've been doing it for
so long. It's like secondnature. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.
So anything that takes us out ofthe ordinary, it does not
surprise me. Because my it isthe juggling. Well,
Madeline Walden (12:00):
yeah. Yeah, another day. Well, okay. Well,
speaking of things that were notin your nature, and not in
anyone's nature, as during thepandemic, when we were closed
and preparing to reopen yourteam was crucial to not only
keeping our staff safe, but tokeeping our guests safe. Safe,
too. What was that like for youand your team? Yeah. Yeah, maybe
(12:21):
from just the beginning ofclosing? And how did how was
that? It
Keisha Leonard (12:26):
was it was challenging. Because I think the
there was a lot of parts thatwas like, so heart wrenching.
And there were a lot of timeswhen it's like, are we ever
going to open back up? But fromthe beginning, it was
unbelievable. First of all, itwas unbelievable that the world
(12:48):
was shutting down. Yeah, youknow. And then you hear all
these stories, you're hearingall that news, and you're
hearing all these stories, andyou don't know what actually is
going to happen. But I rememberthe day we actually had to send
all of our staff. It was sad,because there was guys that we
had hired like, oh my gosh, no,there were guys that we had just
(13:12):
hired, like, super recently. Andhe was like, Am I losing my job?
And I was like, Oh, my gosh, andI had to be the one to sit there
until, you know, that's that wasreally hard. And I it really, I
don't, it really didn't hit metoo. Right now. I'm about a
dozen like, Yeah, well,
Madeline Walden (13:29):
because I think we are all in such a just go
forward. Yeah, just like youcan't really stop to think about
it because we this is somethingthat's never happened before.
Yeah, no. And so it's justimmediately adapting to the
situation. Yeah. And when youreview it, you're like, I How,
how did we go?
Erin Lundy (13:44):
Traumatic forever. You know, I think we had to
block a lot of it out for sure.
Keisha Leonard (13:48):
Yeah, sure. And so me and Alfie we were here
like full time we weren't sevento four every day. And because
me and Alfie started where westarted out we can go in the
restrooms and clean them with noproblem, you know, so we were
responsible to take care of therestrooms, but we it was a time
where we had to dust all thegalleries. So we dusted
(14:09):
everywhere we got in here, thecrew that we did have everybody
just you know, we just intoevery nook and cranny, then it
was like, it was like a desertin here. You know, I remember
walking through shark lagoon oneday and it was a windstorm. And
literally we had liketumbleweeds everything had
accumulated into a big ol ballwas like we are deserted. Yeah,
(14:33):
this place is deserted. So itwas scary not knowing if we were
going to have a backup. Yeah,you know, it
Erin Lundy (14:38):
was one of my favorite but also weirdest
things during COVID is justlike, when we were fully closed,
the animals noticed. And anytimeany person would walk by they
were so interested in what wewere doing because like how
human you know, the penguinswould chase you back and it was
so weird to see these animalslike genuinely they Notice the
(15:00):
difference and their behaviorchanged as a result of it. And
it's just not something I everthink about of how enriching it
must be for some of theseanimals to see people every day
interact with them. And thenjust immediately that was gone.
And so I think the penguins wereone of the happiest that people
came back, and then chase one ofour sea lions in the tunnel,
right? So he's playing withpeople, time anyone walks
through the tunnel, Chase wouldjust line up and be ready to go.
Madeline Walden (15:23):
Play with them. So a lot of time, I'm sure. I'm
sure he was very happy with allof the staff, you know, we were
definitely a smaller crew. Butyou know, there was there was
people around and so it wasweird. It was a weird time. It
was really weird. But yeah, thatis a joyful spot for me to and
during that time as like, thoseinteractions with the animals
and seeing the aquarium emptyand kind of having it to
(15:45):
yourself in a way to Yeah, itwas odd. Yeah. So while we're
while we were close, you andAlfie were mainly on site
keeping up because we startedpeople here, you know, and
there's upkeep to do externallytoo, and all the things that you
guys do. So how was thetransition once we open to the
public?
Keisha Leonard (16:02):
So then we started using like, these were
they called?
Madeline Walden (16:08):
I was hoping to talk.
Keisha Leonard (16:11):
I can't remember the actual name we had for it.
But we had these Miss guns, wewould go in there and disinfect
the restaurants. And then wealso made bleach water for the
acrylic, we wipe that down everyhour. Or every hour, every hour.
And every hour, we would go outand disinfect the the sides of
the shark tanks. Did you guysever see us with the generators?
(16:32):
Yes, steamer? Yeah. Yeah. Thatwas that was challenging, very
challenging, because we'd haveto move everybody back. Yeah,
you know, we would do sharklagoon and the race. So that was
yeah, that was really
Madeline Walden (16:45):
challenging is are such an important department
really keeping us safe,especially during it's such a
scary time where you know, likesurfaces are scary. touching
anything is scary. But you know,we it's so wonderful that we
were able to reopen and have ouryou know, our visitors back on
site, and also be able to keepthem safe at the same time. So
we have your team to thank forthat.
Erin Lundy (17:05):
Yeah, I really do appreciate so much.
Madeline Walden (17:09):
I was hoping you were going to talk about
those Mr. Guns because theylook, I still use them at all,
or
Keisha Leonard (17:13):
no, we haven't used them in a while. Yeah, no.
We use them up we use. They'vegone.
Madeline Walden (17:25):
So funny. I think people would be really
surprised to learn about all ofthe ways your department has to
adapt to the strange surfaces.We do have here. Because we have
acrylic, which can't be scrubbedor right, it can't have
abrasive. Right, right. Sothat's something you have to be
really mindful of. And then ofcourse, on top of that you have
the health and safety of ouranimals to consider right. So
(17:46):
what are some things and whatare some precautions you guys
have to take for those oh, whatother people wouldn't do with
their normal job.
Keisha Leonard (17:54):
So like in Shark shark lagoon, we do the glass
out there, there's differentglass like at the Animal Care
Center, and then the thejellyfish, so we use water, we
have to use water because wecan't cross contaminate,
especially like overwaterviewing where the sharks are, we
have to use water because if ifyou use the 543 the glass
(18:15):
cleaner, it would get in thetank and cross contaminate. So
we use the water the squeegee,and we just we do it about 17
times a day.
Now with the acrylic, we usediapers, because towels will
scratch it. You know
Madeline Walden (18:36):
that's why we use it. It's not necessarily
like they're just absorbent,it's softer
Keisha Leonard (18:40):
that we cannot use towels on the acrylic we
have to use diapers, we don'tuse squeegees on the acrylic
because that can scratch it aswell. We're very, you know,
mindful of what we use on theacrylic and we put a wet diaper
wet diaper on there. And thenyou go over it with a driveway.
And it gets the fingerprints andeverything. Yeah.
Madeline Walden (18:58):
Okay, well speaking of animals, do you get
to interact with animals a lotin your position? Or do you have
any fun animal stories? Um, doyou have a favorite and love?
Keisha Leonard (19:07):
I love the sea otters? They are so cute. But
they don't interact with me thatmuch unless I'm walking through
early in the morning. Like
Madeline Walden (19:16):
they do do the first thing in the morning
that's my favorite time to seethem because they're just like,
hey, yeah
Keisha Leonard (19:25):
but I do have a favorite animal. Oh my gosh, I
can't believe I'm sorry MichaelI'm sorry my god Michael is a
parrot fish. His name is MichaelI named him Michael
accidentally. You guys
Madeline Walden (19:43):
I hadn't heard about you accidentally days that
the big the big. The Big Fish.
Keisha Leonard (19:50):
Fish. Oh my gosh. Can
Erin Lundy (19:51):
you please tell me how you accidentally?
Keisha Leonard (19:54):
I'm gonna tell you. It was during COVID Yeah.
Okay, so I had read up on him tosee you know, I liked that he
his defense mechanism. He covershimself in a like, what is it? A
mask like a Joe he like a mucusmucus. Yeah. And he eats coral
(20:14):
and his teeth are in the back ofhis neck.
Erin Lundy (20:17):
So he can like to kind of thing.
Keisha Leonard (20:19):
So Nate was coming through Nate from
husbandry, he's coming through.We're right there. And I can't
remember exactly what words weexchanged but I thought he said
his name was Michael
Erin Lundy (20:35):
Senior Director of Husbandry be like, yeah, it's
Michael.
Keisha Leonard (20:41):
But like I said, I can't remember the
conversation we were having, butI heard my
Madeline Walden (20:47):
therefore. And so.
Keisha Leonard (20:52):
So, some of the staff from husbandry they you
know, like, Okay, well, we'llcall Michael. Every time someone
who doesn't know Michael comesthrough there I introduced him
to Michael
Madeline Walden (21:05):
Okay, well, if you come visit the Aquarium of
the Pacific, and you go into ourtropical gallery, Michael is
located inside of our coralpredators habitat, so it's the
biggest one. He's the bigbeautiful Yes, you can't miss
him. He's
Erin Lundy (21:18):
y'all know Mike.
Keisha Leonard (21:21):
He looks like a Michael.
Erin Lundy (21:24):
Michael and
Madeline Walden (21:25):
Michael Michaels out there. You're
beautiful, right? You
Erin Lundy (21:29):
look like you've got a lot of fish covered in you.
Like you have teeth in yourthroat. Every Michael out there.
Congratulations on pooping.
Madeline Walden (21:44):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah,
Erin Lundy (21:48):
that's a good story that So Michael is your
favorite. Michael
Keisha Leonard (21:50):
is my favorite.
Erin Lundy (21:51):
I guess that he's so beautiful. He might be my
favorite.
Madeline Walden (21:54):
I think so. I
Keisha Leonard (21:55):
think when you leave here you need to go up to
checkout.
Erin Lundy (21:58):
You're gonna go to Michael field trip we should
talk about Michael. We really?Now that we know
Madeline Walden (22:03):
you're right. Right. I learned so much of this
podcast, including about my
Keisha Leonard (22:07):
right and she
Erin Lundy (22:08):
said that's all animals with human names and be
like, who's Michael? Zoom in onthe fish? Who's Parker and then
a lion?
Madeline Walden (22:15):
Like was so funny. Like Parker, I don't know
why that makes more sense to me.i We have I think they call the
balloon fish. Fred. I've heardto the fish and tropical. Mr. Mu
Mr. MooMoo. Mr. MooMoo?
Erin Lundy (22:29):
Oh, I'm sorry. There's two moves. I did not
know.
Madeline Walden (22:31):
Have you gotten to meet any animals have close
before?
Keisha Leonard (22:34):
I'm one of the sea lions. He was Miller. Oh,
really? Yeah. Yeah.
Erin Lundy (22:40):
Miller was our big dominant male before Parker. I
never met him. But I've seen alot of pictures. There's, I
guess, Linda, who's one of ourlongtime volunteers was telling
me this story about how Millerused to sleep in front of the
door to so that people wouldcome in and feed them. And he
would just go take a nap infront of the door. No, and so no
one could get out. So he waslike, you gotta feed me forever.
(23:03):
Yeah, and he would just go tosleep. That's actually a great
idea. I think some good ideas.
Madeline Walden (23:09):
I think the number one question we got for
you is people want to know allabout cleaning the blue whale.
And by the blue whale, I mean,our blue whale model that hangs
in our Great Hall. It was placedthere in 1998. I think when
right before we opened, and itdoesn't come down. It is up
there. So it's life size. Andits life size, like
Erin Lundy (23:30):
accurate to a blue whale, the largest mammal on the
planet is hanging from theceiling, oils actually dating to
Madeline Walden (23:37):
Wales. And so just like everywhere else in the
aquarium that, you know, can getmaybe dusty time to time or you
know, no one's up there touchingit at least. But how do we clean
something that's hanging fromthe ceiling? It's in the middle
of the ceiling, right? Yeah.
Erin Lundy (23:52):
Right. So
Keisha Leonard (23:52):
we have to get on the scissor lift. And there's
usually two people I've been upthere numerous times. Me and
Alfie Alfie has been up therewith Nicole, we've been up there
with other staff members. Andit's, it seems it's easy for us.
But it might seem hard when Iyou know, we use dusters. And we
just tediously go in sections,until we get the desk off that
(24:15):
you know, section and we move onto the next.
Madeline Walden (24:20):
You start from the head and the tail or we
start at
Keisha Leonard (24:22):
the tail. And we do one side. And we go on all
the way over. And then we comeon the other side and do the
whole side. I
Madeline Walden (24:28):
haven't found anything up there before that
means playing
Keisha Leonard (24:31):
airplane.
Madeline Walden (24:32):
I was gonna say
Erin Lundy (24:35):
I wonder where those came from
Keisha Leonard (24:37):
tomorrow. Yeah,
Madeline Walden (24:38):
we have a paper airplane contest in the morning
sometime here before we open soI've seen several paper
airplanes. And how often do weclean the blue whale once a
year? Usually, here's a coupletimes now I will say a couple
times a year four times. Soyeah, sometimes you know it'll
happen because you guys areabout to are you about to clean
it or do you just finish
Keisha Leonard (24:56):
now they're doing it. They're like, painting
it.
Madeline Walden (25:00):
Oh, wow. Oh yeah,
Keisha Leonard (25:03):
you're painting. Last night
Madeline Walden (25:05):
news drop on Aquarium of the Podcific the
whale is getting a makeover.Yeah, that's exciting. So okay,
so then we're gonna do Okay, sothen that'll at least align with
the cleaning of it and our paperairplane contest does end up
there on the dome. So you guysget up there and you dust it.
Meticulously excited to see whatit'll look like painted. Is that
(25:28):
the first time we paint since
Keisha Leonard (25:30):
I've been here? Wow. almost 19 years I've been
here. Never been at it.
Erin Lundy (25:33):
How are they painting? Are they gonna take it
down? No, they're gonna go upand like,
Madeline Walden (25:38):
that's great. Thank you.
Keisha Leonard (25:39):
I could probably spray it.
Erin Lundy (25:41):
Yeah. Oh, that makes way more sense. It's like a
little brighter. When
Keisha Leonard (25:46):
you go out there. If you look on the far
side, you can see where theyactually started doing some
sanding. I
Erin Lundy (25:52):
love this. Yeah, just getting good to eat like I
didn't know. That's cool. It'sgonna be pink changes. It's not
a blue whale anymore.
Madeline Walden (26:08):
That's amazing. Well, I
Erin Lundy (26:09):
have can I please ask
Ben Brown dying to ask about. Soearlier we asked Keisha. Hey, do
you have any stories that arefunny about your time here and
Keisha said that one time,something really funny happened.
And I have been just dying allday to hear the story. So
Keisha, will you please tell usa story. And I'm so excited.
(26:33):
You're shaking, I knowvibrating. Like, this is gonna
be good.
Keisha Leonard (26:37):
I was thinking about that. And when you guys
like stories, I'm like, I onlyhave one. And this was like the
funniest dishes, the one. So Iwas working swing shift. And a
lot of times I'm swing shift, wedo a lot of testing in the
galleries as well. Before COVIDAfter COVID and our changing
Gallery, which is now artgallery. It was our changing
(27:00):
gallery. I forgot what it wascalled then, but it had raised
round raising it. The smallones. Remember they have the
touch tank and familiar with thetouch number. And the door to
get into the back of the roundraise was locked. And I'm like,
I need to get in this over here.I could have called Security I
(27:22):
can just climb over. So theywill put these plastic covers on
it at night. And I tookinitiative to climb over the
plastic covers. And right when Igot in the middle, they broke
and I weighed not to mentionAlfie was with me. And he was
(27:44):
laughing like crazy. He made mefeel so bad. I was Oh my gosh.
My phone was in my pocketeverything. So I was so I had to
go home and change.
Erin Lundy (27:57):
The fact that I waited till you were in bed
could have broken right away andI would not have been soaked but
so
Keisha Leonard (28:03):
I can say I swam with the race.
Erin Lundy (28:07):
And my goodness, actually that is a better story
than I was like we're possiblyfalling in all the context was.
I fell into it. Yeah, I'll
Madeline Walden (28:16):
tell you about it later. You okay with the
race? Okay, yeah, we were allOkay, good.
Erin Lundy (28:23):
You had a heart to heart while you're down there.
How you guys are good. I'm gonnago home and Michael while you're
done
Madeline Walden (28:38):
that's incredible. That's so much
Erin Lundy (28:44):
that's a really good.
Madeline Walden (28:45):
Have you ever fallen into it? Um,
Erin Lundy (28:48):
I? I've slowly
Yeah, well, it's always theworst. If you fall and you're
like, Well, I slipped in thenyou're like, cool. I just You
just see Yeah, but there's beena time so on our sea lion.
pinnipeds exhibit we havealleged that we cleaned the
acrylic from the inside. And weuse diapers and water. But it's
slippery. And so it's an unevensurface because it's like a rock
(29:11):
surface. And so I was walking onit in waders which are also
like, not very like gripfriendly. And I think I just
stepped on a rock that was roundand covered and algae. And I
fell so slowly. Like it wasn'teven like, oh, I fell in the
exam. I just like slowly satdown
to the point where I don'tremember who was with me, but
(29:32):
they asked me if it wasintentional. They're like, are
you are good. Like I just mywaiters filled up with water.
Because they're waterproof bothways. And then I had to like
hike out of the exhibit was mypants full of water. So I have
sat down in an exhibit. slowly,very slowly. I've almost fallen
(29:53):
into otters more times than Ican count but thank goodness I
haven't. I would not be fun.They probably would be scared.
But we can't take that chance.No, no.
Madeline Walden (30:03):
Well, thank you so much Keisha for coming on
today. I love hearing about yourrole here at the Aquarium and
we're so thankful to you andyour team for doing everything
that you do keeping us safe andkeeping our animals safe too.
And hopefully, you'll come backon the podcast in the future and
tell us more fun stories. Yeah.What'd you forward to
Keisha Leonard (30:18):
it? Because I was nervous in the beginning,
but it was perfect. It was fine.You just taught
Madeline Walden (30:24):
I told you it's just talking.
Erin Lundy (30:26):
Yeah. Telling us funny stories making us laugh
falling into naming the fishMichael. I gotta go see
Madeline Walden (30:34):
ya see Michael Michael be the cover photo.
Erin Lundy (30:36):
What's your last name? Does he have a last name?
Madeline Walden (30:39):
No, but I would think of it okay. Yeah, for next
month
Erin Lundy (30:41):
or for next up.
Keisha Leonard (30:46):
Teeth in the throat
Erin Lundy (30:49):
that's all one word.
Madeline Walden (31:01):
Thank you so much for coming on today.
Aquarium of the Podcific isbrought to you by Aquarium of
the Podcific a 501 C threenonprofit organization in 2023.
The aquarium celebrates 25 yearsof connecting millions of people
worldwide to the beauty andwonder of our ocean planet. Head
(31:22):
to aquarium of pacific.org tolearn more about our 25th
anniversary celebration. Keep upwith the aquarium on social
media at aquarium Pacific onTiktok Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn.
Erin Lundy (31:33):
This podcast is produced by Erin Lundy, Madeline
Walden and Scott Shaw. Our musicis by Andrew Wright's MA and our
podcast art is by Brandy Kenny,special thanks to Cecile Fisher
and Isa vias and our audiovisual and education departments
and to all of our amazingpodcast guests for taking time
out of their day to talk aboutthe important work that they do.
Pod cific wouldn't be possiblewithout the support of the
(31:54):
aquarium stoners, members,guests and supporters. Thanks
for listening
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