How to become a Marine Mammal Trainer

Hey ya'll!!! With the second round of negative attention occurring to this absolutely amazing field, I decided it was my duty to speak up!

Not because I am an expert on anything and everything revolving around this field but because I am a proud marine biologist and ex marine mammal trainer that knows what it takes to be a trainer and give these majestic animals phenomenal lives under human care.

First off, you have to have a PERFECT MARRIAGE of experience and education in order to land a PAID position in the marine mammal field to begin with!
Education is in reference to a Bachelor's Degree (plus). The specific degree varies from Biology, Psychology, Zoology, etc.
-I personally have a degree in Biology with an emphasis in Marine Sciences. But most of my colleagues had Psychology degrees.

Experience comes from mostly unpaid internships. Most zoos and aquariums are non-profit agencies and don't have the funding to pay interns BUT they need the extra help, and the completely 'green' people wanting to work in this industry need experience SO therefore unpaid internships were born.
-MY advice is to apply to said internships during your college experience so you can apply for jobs right after graduation.

UPON APPLYING FOR PAID JOBS YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PASS SWIM TESTS!!!!!
The most commonly tested skills will include but not be limited to:
-under water breath hold swim
-timed distance (top water) freestyle swim
-timed water tread
-weight retrieval from the bottom of an enclosure
(distances and depths vary depending on facility)

IN CONCLUSION!
Higher education, experience and physical/mental capacity to perform in the water are the perfect marriage to land a paid position as a Marine Mammal Trainer!

Now there are TWO main forms of training in this world: Reinforcement and Punishment.

Punishment is what is commonly used when you want to see a particular behavior LESS frequently occurring.
there are two types of punishment: positive punishment and negative punishment.

Negative punishment refers to when you are TAKE AWAY/SUBTRACT (-) a stimulus into the environment in order to change desired behavior. For example: If you are caught fighting with a sibling (behavior) and your parents take away your phone/toy/tv time (stimulus).

Positive punishment is when a stimulus is ADDED (+) to the environment in order to see the particular behavior less. for example: You are yelling profanity in the middle of a grocery story (behavior) and your mom bends down and spanks you (stimulus).

In different regards Reinforcement is the act of training when you want to see a behavior MORE OFTEN.

Negative reinforcement is when you TAKE AWAY/SUBTRACT (-) a stimulus from the environment in order to see a behavior more often. for example: every time you get into your vehicle and don't put on your seatbelt there is an annoying bell that goes off (stimulus) until you put your seatbelt on (behavior). From then on you immediately put on your seat belt in order to not here that bell.
(REALLY HARD TO EXPLAIN)

Positive Reinforcement is when you ADD (+) something into the environment in order to see a behavior more often.
For example: If you are training your dog to sit (behavior) overtime they sit, you reward them with something they like (stimulus) in order for the behavior to happen more frequently.
THIS IS THE ONLY FORM OF TRAINING USED WHEN TRAINING IN A ZOO OR AQUARIUM!