Angela and I volunteered for an Oracle-sponsored event that had us working for the Marin Marine Center for a day. Summary: Most fun animal poop cleaning ever! The center has a clean, well-run operation. They take in abandoned and injured marine mammals and nurse them back to health for eventual release. Mostly young elephant seals and sea lions (though they get otters too; no space for whales/dolphins).
They gave us some training and, within an hour, had us cleaning out the elephant seal pens with the elephant seals still in them! We were practically nose-to-nose with them. They have huge, cute eyes and they're very curious. Angela's job was to herd them away from the me (with the hose) and my partner (with the scrubber) while we cleaned. It was really fun.
Check out the whole album on Picasa.
The third-phase of our volunteering was even more fun (the second-phase was weighing out frozen fish--not as fun). We got to feed them! Young elephant seals are used to drinking milk and they have to actually learn how to eat fish and even to recognize that fish are food. For some of the animals, this is a big hurdle. They don't really chew their food that much, they just swallow the fish whole and, to do that, they have to get it past a gagging point. For the poor seals that have trouble with this, the volunteers actually hold the animal down and shove mostly-thawed fish down their gullets with metal tongs. They don't look like they enjoy it at all.
A problem most of the animals have there is that they're very underweight. They should be these bulging, sausage-like creatures with no discernible neck. But, from the pictures, you'll see that these little guys have a distinct neck and a small-ish head. Not good for survival in cold Pacific water.
If you ever get a change to volunteer at the Marine center, I highly recommend it. They're looking for regulars who can do one shift a week (it's really fun). Get in touch with them if you want to try!