Sunday, March 14, 2021

Senior Aquarist

 


Senior Aquarist


Anglesey Sea Zoo & Marine Resource Centre


Job Title: Senior Aquarist

Location: Anglesey Sea Zoo & Marine Resource Centre

Contract type: Full time, Permanent

Contact: matt@angleseyseazoo.co.uk

 

The Anglesey Sea Zoo and Marine Resource Centre is pleased to announce an exciting new opportunity- we are now recruiting a Senior Aquarist to join our team of dedicated biologists at our unique and picturesque facility. The Anglesey Sea Zoo is an award-winning tourist attraction dedicated to promoting, protecting and educating the public on the wealth of marine life found around the British Isles. We are a purely native marine aquarium located on the banks of the Menai Straits, with a focus on education, conservation and sustainability.

 

Job Description

The Senior Aquarist will be responsible for maintaining a high standard of animal husbandry and welfare; assisting the aquarium Curator in managing the aquarium team; helping to develop new and existing displays and visitor interactions; assisting the aquarium Curator in ensuring aquarium admin and zoo license compliance is kept up to date.

 

Duties/ Responsibilities:

Animal Husbandry

·       Ensure day to day management of animal husbandry.

·       Develop animal welfare and husbandry practice improvements alongside the Curator.

·       Ensure correct monitoring, management and recording of exhibit water parameters and water quality.

·       Help to maintain and repair exhibit life support systems, including regular maintenance checks, servicing and record keeping.

·       Assist Curator in modifying existing life support systems and pipework, or installation of new systems.

·       Monitor nutrition, preparation, feeds and food storage for animal stocks, including regular review and updating of feeding regimes alongside the Curator.

·       Assist the Curator and veterinary consultants with veterinary examinations, procedures and record keeping

·       Assist in the design and creation of new exhibits, as well as updating existing displays.

·       Assist the Curator in ensuring all aspects of zoo licensing are complied with and that all records are complete and in the specified formats.

·       Assist in the captive breeding programs for Hippocampus hippocampus and Hippocampus guttulatus, including brood stock maintenance, fry collection and fry husbandry.

·       Assist in the breed and release program for European lobsters, including brood stock husbandry, larval collection and rearing, juvenile husbandry and juvenile release.

·       Assist in local collection of live foods, as well as new livestock animals.

·       Assist in the safe transportation, health checking and quarantine process for collected and new livestock.

·       Assist in updating and maintaining signage and interpretation around exhibit displays.

 

People Management

·       Assist the Curator in the management of aquarium staff and volunteers in accordance with company procedures and policies. This can include assisting with: recruitment of staff; staff induction; staff training and development.  

·       Help to co-ordinate volunteer and work experience programs and internship/training programs.

 

Customer Service/ Interaction

·       Must be courteous, pleasant and approachable at all times when dealing with the public.

·       Deliver scheduled informative talks and feeding displays to the public, as well as tours and educational packages to school groups.

·       Attend scheduled events and outreach programs as a representative of the Anglesey Sea Zoo.

·       Help to develop public talks, feeding displays, educational packages and other interactive events

·       Assist with coverage of the admissions desk, including cash handling and customer service representation.

Other Site Duties

·       The successful applicant will be a key holder and must be available for scheduled 24 hours on call for environmental and intruder alarm activations.

·       Cover Duty Manager responsibilities on scheduled days when the Curator is absent. Duties can include cash handling, management and collection; ensuring proper site opening and closing down; covering first aid responses.

·       Attend training courses as required by the business.

 

 

 Requirements

·       At least three years’ fish keeping/aquarist experience

·       Education to degree level or equivalent in an applicable science

·       Full UK manual driving license

·       Availability to respond to call-outs on a scheduled basis.

·       Availability to work in shifts including weekends and bank holidays

 

Preferred Experience

·       Experience maintaining, modifying and installing common life support system components and pipework

·       Experience with seahorse husbandry, breeding and rearing in captivity

·       PADI dive qualifications (esp. Rescue diver/dive master)

·       Ability to use Microsoft packages, in particular excel and word.

·       Ability to speak Welsh or the desire to learn.

·       Ability to use construction tools and equipment.

 

 

How to Apply

If interested, please apply using your CV (3 pages max.) and cover letter by email to matt@angleseyseazoo.co.uk. Your cover letter should highlight how you would be able to fulfill this role and clearly demonstrate how you meet our requirements. 

 

 Reach the right people. Advertise here.

This vacancy has been posted out to the many thousands who read the popular Zoo Jobs Blog Page and then on to the 129,400 plus followers of the  ZooNews Digest Facebook Page. It is then immediately forwarded on to Twitter and then to Pinterest and Linkedin (8,000+ connections). Many vacancies are shared to individuals and groups. In short your vacancy will have the potential of reaching something in the region of some 80,000 plus people within 24 hours. Most of these people are working in a zoo environment, Keepers, Curators, Vets, Zoo Directors, Trainers, Aquarists and more.

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The number of people who will actually read the posted vacancy  will actually be considerably less. Usually this will be between two hundred and three thousand. This will depend on the type of post, the time of the year and where it is located…of course not all will apply. I wish you the very best of luck in finding the right candidate for your post.

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photo 
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant

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