[Original Post date: March 26, 2012] Feeding the Sharks…Even Babies Bite Hard!
I fed sharks! Incredible!
To explain: My son Jake (he’s a high school senior) needed help feeding the fish at Central Campus over spring break. Central Campus is a regional academy of the Des Moines Public School District in Des Moines, Iowa. The campus provides extended and unique learning opportunities to students.
Jake is a student in the Aquarium Science program taught by Kirk Embree. Students experience aquatic animal husbandry and aquaculture in a new facility modeled after a public aquarium. The “fish” are on the 3rd flood of the “old tech high building” and you have to see it. It’s very impressive. The entire building is getting an incredible face lift (it used to be a Ford assembly plant). I’m proud of what DMPS is doing to improve learning environments.
There are over 100 aquariums totaling 16,000 gallons of saltwater!
Last year Jake and his cohort traveled to the Bahamas for a 10 day field ecology trip and explored the ocean. And other areas of life while down there too! He certified in scuba diving for the trip. What stories he shared! We are privileged to have this wonderful learning academy accessible for our youth! Here’s a short video about the marine program.
Sharks have all the senses we have (smell, taste, touch, eyesight, and hearing). They can also sense electricity and vibrations in the water. However, a shark’s primary sense is a keen sense of smell. It can detect one drop of blood in a million drops of water (~25 gallons) and can smell blood 0.25 mile away!
To feed the sharks, I used a realllly long needle with raw shrimp on the end. They snatched it right up and I let out a bit of a scream!
That would bite!
To change tones of this post I have a question. Have you seen the movie Swimming With Sharks also known as The Boss and Buddy Factor? It’s a 1994 American comedy drama film directed and written by George Huang.
Buddy Ackerman, an influential movie mogul, hires Guy, a naïve young writer, as his assistant. Guy who has just graduated from film school, believes that his new job is a golden opportunity. Despite warnings from Rex, the outgoing assistant who has become hardened under Buddy’s reign, Guy remains optimistic…Unfortunately, Buddy turns out to be the boss from hell…..
The above is from From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
I’d rather feed than swim with the sharks!
A “shark” can be a greedy or ruthless or treacherous person. I tend to understand that “swimming with sharks” means “working with ruthless, back-stabbing people who will stop at nothing to achieve their own goals (like profit).” In this sense, a shark doesn’t care what he does to you or a company. He “attacks fiercely” in order to achieve his own goals. The “attack” could be perfectly legal, even though it might hurt a lot of other people.
Pay attention to “sharks”
I counsel clients through the job placement process, and we pay attention if it appears there’s sharky behaviors coming from potential employers. I also counsel myself when it comes to the potential of swimming in water that may be infested with sharks. In a future post I will talk about my role in litigated cases as an Expert Witness. Stay tuned and keep watch!
Even cute baby sharks bite hard!
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My professional rehabilitation counseling practice is focused on helping people participate in the world around them, particularly in their own world of work.
