Habitat interpreters share their enthusiasm and stories about Aquarium animals with our guests, answer questions and facilitate conversations to help people better understand the marine environment.
Initially, habitat interpreters spend most of their time at our Life on the Edge touch pools and giant Pacific octopus habitat. With additional training, interpreters may move throughout the habitat galleries and focus on other habitats, such as the Underwater Dome, Birds & Shores and Marine Mammals.
Don’t know much about marine animals and their habitats? You can still serve as a habitat interpreter! To prepare for time spent in our habitats, all Aquarium volunteers receive extensive training on the marine animals in our care and interpretive communication techniques. Volunteers are assigned to a team of eight to 15 volunteers and led by a staff marine science interpreter, who shares the important work of actively engaging our guests.
The minimum time commitment required for habitat interpreters is one four-hour shift every week for a minimum of six continuous months. Shifts begin at 9am, 11am and 2pm seven days a week. New volunteers must complete the full series of new volunteer training to begin.
Winter 2025 Orientation and Training
Our winter 2025 training series will begin in January 2025. The registration deadline is January 4, 2025. If you’re interested in joining us for this role, please register for the winter training series here:
If accepted, all prospective habitat interpretation volunteers must complete the full training series. If you can’t complete the full training series, please wait for a future onboarding cycle. The following training series will begin in spring 2025.
All prospective volunteers must attend a volunteer orientation. We will hold a live, virtual orientation session on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, 6–7:30pm. If you are unable to attend that session and have registered for training, a recording of the orientation will be shared with you via email. You may watch the recording anytime between January 8 and 13.
Interviews: Friday, January 17 through Wednesday, January 22. Each prospective volunteer is required to complete one virtual interview via Zoom. Interviews are typically 20–30 minutes long. The interview sign-up form will be shared with those who have registered for the winter training series. Interview sign-ups will close on Monday, January 13, 2025.
Volunteer support and safety training: Virtual training with the Volunteer Engagement team will be held on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, 6–8pm via Zoom.
Life on the Edge habitat training: Hosted on select dates (listed below), 9am–3pm. These trainings take place at the Seattle Aquarium in our classroom and habitat spaces. Volunteers only need to attend one Life on the Edge habitat training:
- Saturday, February 1
- Saturday, February 8
- Sunday, February 9
- Thursday, February 13
- Saturday, February 15
Certification night: Hosted on select dates, 6–9pm. These trainings take place at the Seattle Aquarium in our habitat spaces. Volunteers only need to attend one certification night training:
- Monday, February 24
- Wednesday, February 26
- Monday, March 3
Habitat interpretation volunteer shifts will begin the week of March 10, 2025.
