Day in the life of a Newport Aquarium vet: Annual exams for stingrays, sharks

Open your mouth and say, “Ah.”

Just like humans, animals at Newport Aquarium must undergo annual exams. LINK nky spent the morning of the exams with stingrays “Stevie” and “Tampa Ray,” and coral catsharks “Red” and “Orange” watching them get their measurements, blood work and X-rays.

Stevie is up first.

Newport Aquarium Veterinary Technician Jolene Hanna measures the anesthesia, which is poured into the water to calm the animals. While Hanna and Newport Aquarium Veterinarian Hali Jungers examine Stevie in one cooler of water, her friend Tampa Ray swims in a larger cooler nearby. They use coolers because they are well-insulated, safe and easy to transport.

The exams take place on a wet table where the vet can do anastatic procedures. The table is plumbed in aquarium water, not city water, because the animals are sensitive to water changes.

Hanna and Jungers are wearing plastic gloves and are careful not to get their skin oils in the water.

The stingrays have tipped barbs, so they can’t injure anyone. Stevie is growing a new barb, which will eventually kick out the old one.

The stingrays have been with the aquarium since 2017. They and the sharks are part of the aquarium’s outreach program, which involves animals visiting places like schools and libraries for educational opportunities. They are not animals you would see in the display tanks on a typical visit.

Jungers said it’s not meant to be super invasive, but it collects a bit of the animal’s mucus coat to check for parasites or other things that shouldn’t be there. Running two fingers over the ray’s skin, you can feel it’s slightly bumpy like sandpaper.

“Sometimes, depending on where on their body, they will have extra bumps and stuff, and it’s kind of a defense to have little sharp bits,” Hanna said.

Jungers said the animals are sensitive to alcohol, so before moving on to sticking them with a needle to draw their blood, she rinses the area with saline.

“We get blood for the same reasons you get blood for people, dogs, cats, to see if their organs are functioning the way that they’re supposed to and find out if there’s an infection,” Hanna said. “Oftentimes, you take a sample from an animal that you know is in good health, just to have baselines. A lot of these animals there isn’t enough information about, so taking care of them and knowing what the numbers are is important to evaluating when they’re not well.”

As Jungers examines Stevie, she moves on to an ultrasound. The image of the stingray’s spiral valve or spiral colon appears on an iPad screen next to the cooler.

“This circle right here, as you go back and forth, you can kind of see a little swirl,” Jungers said, pointing at the screen. “It’s from all of the folds that they have in there, and the thought behind that is it helps with nutrient absorption (like human intestines.)”

Jungers is the aquarium’s first full-time vet.

She started in 2022 and oversees caring for the thousands of animals at the aquarium. Jungers said they are still trying to figure out what “regular” exams for the animals look like. Some species might need an annual exam, while others may be every other year.

Plus, some of them don’t fit through the doorway.

Prior to Jungers’ arrival at the Aquarium, they used a contract or relief veterinarian who worked part-time or as needed. Jungers, originally from California, spent four years getting a biology degree and then went to vet school for four years. After, she did a year-long rotating internship where she worked with emergency doctors.

Then COVID-19 hit. Specialty internships at zoos and aquariums weren’t offered anymore. While in limbo, she went into general practice and applied to the Aquatic Animal Health fellowship at the University of California, Davis, where she got to work with public aquariums.

Jungers spent roughly 11 years learning before starting as a full-time vet at Newport Aquarium.

She said you could ask 10 different vets how they got to their position, and you would get 10 different answers.

Hanna has been with the aquarium for 23 years.

After graduating from college with a marine biology degree, Hanna said she didn’t know what to do with herself. She started working at veterinary practices but needed licensure and education to become a technician. While pursuing that degree at the University of Cincinnati, they required her to do a work-study.

“Everybody and their brother were trying to get into the zoo,” Hanna said. “They had an interview process because they only took one person, and the aquarium was brand new. They took me right away, doors wide open, come on in. And they never let me leave.”

While getting their X-rays, the rays are quickly set on the table while Jungers takes two different angles of imaging. Stingrays are completely cartilage, like human ears. Looking at the X-ray, you can see the “rays” of cartilage that look like waves within their wings.

Jungers checks the X-ray images for fractures, vertebral displacement and signs of arthritis. She said sometimes an X-ray makes it hard to tell if something is wrong, which is why they also do ultrasounds.

When the rays are flipped over, tiny pores called Ampullae of Lorenzini can be seen on their skin. They are also visible on the coral catsharks. The pores help the animals navigate.

Due to working with thousands of different aquatic animals, Jungers said the field is very collaborative.

“I reach out to colleagues on a weekly basis about you, name it,” she said. “Different medications, different questions about species. You have to be willing to reach out to people when you don’t know something. It’s not uncommon for facilities to only have a single veterinarian.”

Hanna and Jungers also get advice from marine biologists who care for the animals daily and use similar animals for comparison. For example, Red, the coral catshark, received a routine exam, but when Orange was up, the vet noticed little bumps along her skin.

“Sometimes you find things that are new to you, that could be totally normal to the species, but just because you’ve never seen it before,” Hanna said.

They used Red as a comparison, who did not have the bumps, and called in Newport Aquarium Senior Biologist Jen Swope Hazeres for a third opinion.

“The thing that is really amazing about working in this industry is how much everybody wants you to succeed,” Hanna said. “So, they share information. Everyone wants to be successful with their animals. So, if you have questions, they answer immediately, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never seen this before,’ and you’ll find, like, one guy.”

Jungers said the field is always evolving, so there’s always something to learn, whether that’s how a species metabolizes a drug or the anatomy and adaptations of an animal.

Some of the more unusual animals the pair work with are the invertebrates, like the giant isopods. Jungers said the initiatives with shark rays, which are critically endangered, are also interesting to see. She said there is a lot of discussion between facilities that house them about how they are fed, how they are housed, health issues, etc.

When Hanna and Jungers aren’t doing annual exams, they could be doing wellness checks, administrative duties, going through the pharmacy, cleaning, processing samples to send to the lab, etc.

“I’ll describe my job in a lot of ways, but bored is never one of them,” Jungers said.

Those wishing to check out the aquarium can take advantage of the free pre-k membership for families with children aged 2-4. The membership gives the kids a full year of new animals and exhibits for free. Kids must be registered by Feb. 23. Find out more information here.