Click photo to enlarge
Zoologist Associate Prof Liz Slooten (pictured beside the
Otago Harbour) reflects on her best job as a youngster,
working with dolphins and walruses. Photo by Linda
Robertson.
In 2004, Dutch-born University of Otago zoologist
Associate Prof Liz Slooten, who is well known for her research
into New Zealand's endangered Hector's dolphin, and her
partner, Otago marine scientist Associate Prof Steve Dawson,
received the Royal Society of New Zealand's Sir Charles Fleming
Award for their outstanding contribution to conservation
science.
Prof Slooten (51), who emigrated to New Zealand in 1977 at
the age of 19, discusses with John Gibb the first job she
gained as a young woman.
This job, which was to change her life, was at a marineland
in Harderwijk, 50km east of the Dutch capital, Amsterdam.
"My first job was at a marineland with captive dolphins.
"The best part of the job was to get into the 8m-deep tank
with a basket of fish and feed the dolphins.
"This happened three or four times a day, with the staff
taking turns.
Visitors to the marineland would watch through a glass wall
in the tank.
"It was pure chance getting that job.
"In my last year at high school, someone visiting my parents
asked what I planned to do after finishing school.
"I said I wasn't sure but wanted to do 'something with
animals' and he offered me a holiday job at the marineland
for a few months."
Previously, she had been thinking about becoming a vet's
assistant, but the marineland job sparked her interest in
animals of the marine kind.
"I loved the dolphins, seals, walruses and other animals in
the marineland and decided to study biology.
"Swimming with the dolphins was a small part of the job."
She vividly remembers how playful some young walruses were.
They may have been young but, already about 2.5m long and
weighing about 100kg, they were strong and sizeable
playmates.
"They were bored out of their skulls and missing their
mothers.
"They were thinking: `Finally, here is someone to play
with'."
Sometimes they would roll themselves up in the 15m-long air
hose, briefly interrupting her air supply.
"They were certainly very attention-seeking."
Other times, as if reluctant for the fun to end too soon,
they would grab her around the waist as she attempted to
leave the pool.
"Other tasks included collecting water from all the tanks to
check water quality, feeding the young walruses and doing
some typing for a student who was studying dolphin behaviour
and was working on her PhD thesis.
"Talking with her probably gave me the idea to study biology.
"I emigrated to New Zealand in 1977, following my two
brothers, and our parents followed a few years later once
they had retired.
"After a BSc and MSc at Auckland University, it was time to
get back to the dolphins.
" I had met Steve Dawson during my BSc studies and we decided
to study Hector's dolphin for our PhD degrees at Canterbury
University.
"These dolphins were being caught in gillnet and trawl
fisheries and very little was known about how many dolphins
were killed each year, how fast they breed and whether this
was sustainable.
"Hector's dolphin, which is only found in New Zealand, has
declined from an original population of about 30,000 to fewer
than 8000 individuals today due to fishing impacts.
"My job now is to teach at Otago University and continue
research on Hector's dolphin.
It's been great to change from feeding dolphins in captivity
to helping to save dolphins in the wild."
