Sitting by the rocky tidepools at the Birch Aquarium, Alana Vinas (11) teaches eager elementary-school students about the colorful starfish and sea anemone they are admiring. At their age, Vinas shared the same curiosity, spending her childhood days exploring the beaches of San Diego.
“I would always go to tidepools in La Jolla with my dad,” Vinas said. “Seeing all those different animals back then and just being curious about them fueled me to want to learn more and care for them because I found them really interesting when I was younger.”
Now, in high school, Vinas is continuing to explore her lifelong love for the ocean through volunteering.
“My whole life, environmental sustainability has been a big thing for me,” she said. “More recently, I realized that it’s not just a hobby for me; it’s something I want to do as an actual career because I’m now looking into either environmental or marine science. I wanted to explore ocean conservation, and Birch Aquarium was a really good opportunity for that because it’s really hands-on.”
Since December, Vinas has been volunteering at Birch Aquarium, assisting with tasks, tending to the animals, and greeting guests. She works mainly in the aquarium’s outdoor area at the tidepools.
“I volunteer on the weekends, usually in the morning,” she said. “At Birch, there’s an outdoor tidepool area, and there are three separate tide pools. As a volunteer, you work out there and guide the visitors. You tell them what’s inside the pools, what they can touch, what they can’t, and a couple of fun facts for them that would be interesting.”
In the tidepool plaza, the aquarium has three tanks where visitors can observe animals such as sea stars, sea cucumbers, and skates in a simulated marine protected habitat.
“It’s supposed to be what a marine protected area out in the ocean would be like,” Vinas said. “There are these three little tanks, and that’s where the visitors touch the animals the most. As a volunteer, you have to switch out the animals to give them a break, like sea cucumbers, sea stars, or hermit crabs. You pick them up out of the water, and then you switch them out with another animal, and we also have to put the animals on break every hour.”
In addition to looking after the animals, Vinas frequently interacts with the visitors, giving them information about the aquarium or answering their questions about marine life. Vinas said she particularly enjoys meeting children who express interest in marine science.
“A lot of times, kids or their parents come up to us saying that their kids are really interested in marine biology, and they ask how we got into volunteering at Birch,” Vinas said. “It’s just really nice to see kids who are that interested and actually serious about marine conservation at that age. Also, sometimes, you notice that a kid is staying really long in one area, or they seem more interested than everyone else, and you get to give more attention to them. And it’s cool to see that spark at such a young age.”
Vinas said that volunteering has given her an opportunity to explore a future in marine conservation.
“I’ve been learning a lot of things that could be helpful for my future career,” she said. “In addition to all the tasks that I do at Birch, a lot of the volunteers and staff there either majored in marine biology or are studying marine biology at UCSD. So, having those mentors and people to ask questions about marine science or environmental science as a career, in addition to all the tasks you have to do as a volunteer, makes it more realistic to see myself in that field in the future. There’s also so much to learn about each of these animals at the aquarium and the ocean; it just makes me more passionate about my future.”
