Students get opportunity to pet penguin, sharks

<p>Dan Dunlap speaks to students about penguins and sharks on March 25. DN PHOTO VICTOR HAMILTON</p>

Dan Dunlap speaks to students about penguins and sharks on March 25. DN PHOTO VICTOR HAMILTON

Ball State students were given the opportunity of a lifetime to pet a penguin and two baby sharks.

On March 25, Waves on Wheels came to Ball State and brought a penguin and two sharks attendees could pet and take pictures with.

Blueberry, an African Penguin standing around two feet tall, waddled around a large lecture hall while his friend and keeper Dan Dunlap spoke to students.

The Wave Foundation is a nonprofit partner with the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Ky., just across the Ohio River.

Dunlap, the education curator for Waves on Wheels, said the event does more than provide people with the chance to pet and take pictures with exotic animals.

“The mission of the Wave Foundation is to excite, engage and educate the community about the wonders of aquatic life, which is our penguins our sharks, and about the importance of conservation as well,” Dunlap said.

Since taking over the program in 2013, Dunlap has helped to expand the outreach program. After reaching record numbers in 2015, Waves on Wheels booked more outreaches in the first two months of 2016 than it did all of 2015.

“It's really incredible. We travel to schools, libraries, senior centers, day cares, community events — you name it and we will be there,” he said. “There’s really no place we won't travel to and educate people.”

After educating the audience on the care and treatment of penguins — both in the wild and at the Newport Aquarium — Dunlap turned his attention to the two sharks swimming around their large glass water tank.

Rocky and Apollo, named after the two characters in the 1976 Oscar-winning movie “Rocky,” are both 2-year-old Epaulette Sharks.

Along with teaching about the sharks, Dunlap did his best to debunk many myths, including that sharks often feed on people.

In 2015, humans killed 90 million sharks, but only 13 people were attacked by sharks, Dunlap said.

Dunlap said one of the biggest contributors to the mass killing of sharks is shark fin soup, of which he brought a can for the audience to see.

Currently, the Newport Aquarium is fighting to have shark fin soup outlawed in all 50 states.

“It’s a brutal way of killing the shark. They have these machetes, they chop off the fins, they throw the shark overboard while it's still alive and it sinks to the bottom and drowns," he said.

In addition to teaching about the animals, Dunlap shared his experiences working in his job field.

“You would be amazed at people’s quality of life that work in zoos and aquariums” he said. “I joke with people all the time, the last time I worked a 40-hour week was when I took a vacation.”

Dunlap credits his work endurance to his passion and love for his job.

“I love what I do, and when you love what you do, you don’t count hours, you don’t sit there and wait for that clock to hit 5 o’clock so you can punch it and be gone," he said.

After concluding the lecture, Blueberry was placed in an open glass tank for guests to pet and take pictures with, and students were allowed to pet Rocky and Apollo as they skimmed across the top of their glass tank.

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