Photo Credit: Mercury News
Meet Matt Martin, a professional shark tank cleaner at Blue Planet Aquarium, located in the United Kingdom.
For 7 hours a day and a shocking 1,000 dives each year, Matt and his team valiantly clean a 3.4 million liter tank with ten sharks inside.
Talk about a risk factor!
The largest shark in the tank is Storm, a 12 ft and 650 lb sand tiger shark. Amazingly, Matt is able to work with nothing but a brush and a wetsuit in spite of a childhood fear of sharks. Matt remembers that his fear came from watching movies like Jaws.
While there’s always danger in Matt’s job, the most dangerous time of year to clean the tank is during mating season. There have been several incidents with sand tiger sharks like Storm in the wild where people have been attacked after irritating the sharks.
Fortunately, the intense training for shark tank cleaning reduces the risk of getting hurt, according to Matt. The wetsuit also protects Matt from getting hypothermia and being scratched by the sharks while cleaning.
Cleaning a shark tank is definitely not one of the most popular jobs in the world but the people who do this work are incredibly valuable. People like Matt contribute to the health of sharks in our aquariums by keeping their homes clean despite of the risks involved.
These sharks are also part of shark conservation awareness by Blue Planet Aquarium, so keeping them healthy is very important.
Source: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/397219/Shark-tank-cleaner