"Just the day to day routine of what needs to go into each individual animal, each individual tank is a lot of work, a lot of dirty work,” said Senior Biologist Clint Ball.

And that’s exactly the stuff this dirty jobs tour is all about. First up, the health of the two otters needs to be observed.  Keeping Stono and Ace healthy requires checking their waste by hand.

"You can see some leaf materials in there, you can tell a lot from this sample it smells like it's supposed to smell,” Ball said.

After the otters are given a clean bill of health, we’re ready to feed the sharks.

"We're feeding two types of fish today. This is salmon, restaurant quality food, over here is mackerel,” Ball said. "This is pretty gross, this is where it gets interesting a lot of the time."

The fish are sliced, diced and vitamin enriched. The entire process serves an important role for both sharks and staff.

"That's one of the most often asked questions, how many people are getting bit in that tank by sharks, never happened, and part of it is the feeding routines we use," Ball said.

Those feeding routines carry over to all animals. The staff also feeds snakes and predatory birds. They eat frozen mice and quail.

"The more variety we can provide, the better off those animals will be," the biologist said.

Animal health is a top priority for the crew, so for the final stop on our dirty jobs tour of the aquarium we're going to check on the health of the two barn owls.

"They do not digest the fur or bones in the rodents so what they do is they digest what they can out of the animal then cough up a casting or pellet,” Ball said. "This is the sign of a healthy owl.”

Healthy critters, means a happy crew and despite their dirty job, the payoff can be seen at each exhibit.

"When we see a kid not only being wowed by an exhibit but also learning something it makes us feel good, that's part of our mission here,” Ball told ABC News 4.

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