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Winter, star of Dolphin's Tale, enjoys home base at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where Boerst interned. For more on Boerst's work with Winter and other marine life, check out the slideshow below. |
“Winter came to Clearwater Marine Aquarium in 2005,” Boerst said. “The rope was wrapped so tightly around her peduncle that it cut off the circulation to her tail. Since dolphins have tails made of cartilage (same as our ears and nose) her tail fell off. After that she taught herself to swim side to side like a shark or fish; sadly this was bad for her back. Hanger Prosthetics heard about this and made her a prosthetic tail to counteract the back problems she was having. When Hollywood heard about this, it decided to make a movie about it.”
That’s Winter’s story. Boerst’s story begins at the age of nine, when she first encountered a dolphin at Discovery Cove. After that experience, she announced to her mother, “This is what I am going to do with my life.”
Following graduation from high school with 24 college credits, Boerst headed to Wittenberg where she is majoring in biology with a minor in marine science. While at Wittenberg, Boerst has taken advantage of Wittenberg’s hands-on, coastal fieldwork opportunities.
“The summer after my freshman year, I went to San Salvador, the Bahamas, to take a comparative communities course and conduct research,” she said, adding that her marine science work actually began at the Marine Science Consortium in Wallops Island, Va., following her Bahamas trip.
As an environmental education intern at the facility, Boerst heard about Winter and her prosthetic tail.
“Reading and hearing the stories made me realize this place really cares for its resident animals, and I applied to intern there,” she said.
After being accepted to the CMA program this summer, Boerst found herself working in the education department where her daily activities included assisting in teaching campers about the animals, taking the campers on snorkel trips and giving tours of the aquarium. Boerst also gave presentations about the aquarium and served as a direct link between the aquarium and the community.
“I was also lucky enough to work with Winter a few times throughout the summer. In this highly competitive field, this is awesome because any experience is good experience,” Boerst said. “I assisted with desensitization – when you have to take something that seems big, scary and unknown to the animal, and make it friendly and not so scary by showing that experiences with it will be positive.”
Boerst explained that the stretcher is one of the main things marine mammals are not so excited about because it means being taken out of the water for medical reasons, or in Winter’s case, for X-rays.
“This was a great learning experience because our animals don’t have to do anything they don’t want to,” Boerst said. “All of our training is done using only positive reinforcement, which means they are rewarded for doing something correct, and if something is done wrong, it is simply ignored. The trainer shows no response and waits for a little while before trying again,” Boerst added. “Needless to say the stretcher took a while, but eventually she did enter it and once she did was highly rewarded. The other desensitzation work I did had to do with a new therapy technique -- just having the equipment around her and placing it on. Both were wonderful experiences and are a big step for me career-wise.”
Currently Boerst is studying at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., for the fall semester.
“It’s a special program Wittenberg has for students during which they can take more marine-intensive courses and do independent research,” she said. “I’m researching the effects of acoustic deterrent devices on sea turtles. Basically we are seeing how sea turtles respond to noise and whether or not this is a realistic option to put on fishing nets to avoid getting them as by-catch, thus saving a lot of already endangered turtles.”
Opportunities like the one at Duke actually piqued Boerst’s interest in Wittenberg.
“When I heard about Wittenberg, I wondered how strong a marine science program could actually be in Ohio,” she said. “I lived in a land-locked state and had never been to the ocean, but the passion was there. After talking to [biology faculty members], I realized how much stronger Wittenberg’s program was because of the strong biology major background and the marine emphasis in the minor.
“This degree not only gives me a well-rounded education, but also allows me to be more marketable in my job search while giving me room for future education and other career options I may consider somewhere down the road. Between the program, the people, and campus itself, I knew from the moment I stepped on the campus that Wittenberg was where I wanted to spend the next four years of my life.”
-Phyllis Eberts '00
