Rewind: Ghost Stories

Happy Halloween! In this episode from October 2024, Aquarium staff tell spooky stories of situations that can and can't be explained.

⁠Episode Transcript

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:05

Hi, I'm Erin Lundy, and I'm Madeline Walton, and this is Aquarium of the Pacific, a podcast brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, Southern California's largest aquarium.

SPEAKER_07 0:15

Join us as we learn alongside the experts in animal care, conservation, and more.

SPEAKER_08 0:28

Welcome back to Scarium of the Podcry. This is our Halloween episode. Also, my name is Madeline. I am Madeline Walden is my full name. That's scary. I forgot for a second. And I am the Aquarian's digital content and community manager. And also I am always joined by my ghost hosts.

SPEAKER_07 0:50

Ooh, my co-ghost. My co-ghosts. We gotta use that. I am the co-ghost today, which means that we're both ghosts. Um but my name is Erin Lundy, and I am the manager of conservation initiatives. All of that is unimportant today because we are talking about ghost stories here at the aquarium.

SPEAKER_08 1:07

And whether you believe them or not, we have some really cool stories from our staff who've worked at the aquarium after hours, sometimes during the day, and have just had some very interesting things happen to them that can't necessarily be explained right away.

SPEAKER_07 1:21

I'm excited because I actually have not heard these stories yet. Um I was out sick last week. Ooh, the scariest thing of all is being out sick from work. Um but Madeline was able to gather up some tales from our staff and hear a little bit about some of the spooky happenings here at the aquarium. And I gotta say, as much as this is a beautiful, family-friendly, happy place to be during the day.

SPEAKER_08 1:46

It does get a little creepy at night. It is a little creepy at night when you walk around and all the lights are off. It just kind of makes the the hair on the back of your neck stand up sometimes. So um there's some really great stories in here. I am so thankful to our colleagues who stopped by my office in the middle of their day. Sometimes I just saw people walk by and said, Hey, do you have a ghost story? And a lot of them did. Um, and so you'll notice I recorded this episode in my office, and so you'll notice that the audio is a little bit different. You might hear some spooky water cooler talk in the background. So scary.

SPEAKER_07 2:19

The printer sounds.

SPEAKER_08 2:20

The printer. Dun dun dun. But there's some really, really great stories in here, and I I hope you'll appreciate them. This is very different from our other episodes. If you are easily spooked, maybe this is something you want to skip. But if this is something you're interested in, then stay tuned. Spooky Halloween. And happy Halloween, everybody. And we'll actually be back soon, very soon, with season three. Our first story is from Luke Richmond. Luke is our manager and artistic director of the Pacific Pals. This story is the least scary. So if you are not into the spooky stories, you can listen to this one and then turn the podcast off.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

So years ago, uh like ten years ago probably, I was working in overnight uh in education. And uh in overnights, the educators, just like the kids in the chaperones, stay overnight at the aquarium, and we sleep in a different gallery usually. So in this particular occasion, the kids were sleeping in tropical and along with their along with the chaperones and teachers, and uh I was sleeping in the Northern Pacific gallery, right in front of the spider crabs, actually, which I guess are sound spooky. Yeah, they sound spooky in another But you know they're actually kind of goofy looking, really. It wasn't uh I guess I've gotten used to them. But the spot in front of the spider crabs is a good spot where it's kind of dark. It's easy to it's dark, there's not as many disturbances and so on, so I'd like to sleep there. And I'm getting ready to nod off and I'm all by myself because my colleague Stacy Wong was sleeping in another gallery over in the front end of the tropical gallery, and suddenly I hear this sound like children screaming, echoing through the through somewhere in the aquarium. I couldn't he I couldn't figure it out. And my first thought is like okay, some of these kids have gotten up and they're wandering around the aquarium, which is like which is the rule of of all rules at overnights. You're not allowed to do that. It's a very big deal if you're caught sneaking around the aquarium. And I'm like, it sounds like kids are like like running and playing chase, like it was a screaming like sound, and that was all I heard. I couldn't hear any of the other noises, it was just sort of ah, ah these and it's like maybe laughing. I wasn't sure what it was. And I'm like, okay, oh jeez, I gotta get up and I gotta go look for these kids. So I go and I walk around the gallery, sound disappears. I can't seem to track it anywhere. I go look in the behind-the-scenes areas, no sound. And I'm like, that's interesting. I walk back to, I'm like, well, I guess I can't do anything about it. So I walk back to where I was gonna sleep, and then I hear it again. And it stops for a while. And so I look around some more, but no sign of the kids anywhere. I'm in the Great Hall, every not nothing. And then I come back to where I was sleeping, and again I hear this noise, and I'm like, okay. Um clearly, some kids somewhere are running around in the aquarium because it sounded exactly like this noise. And I should say I'm a uh I'm a I'm a very strict scientific rationalist, right? So I was like, there's a plausible explanation for this.

SPEAKER_08 5:29

Yeah, I'm not hallucinating that.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

I'm not hallucinating. I acknowledge that this sounds very spooky, like ghostly children running around in the aquarium in the middle of the night, and I can't figure out what it is. And I'm like, I gotta go wake up my my co-worker, Stacy, because we're gonna need to go find this. Uh so I go and I tap Stacy on the shoulder and say, hey, I so I just want you to know I'm not messing with you, okay? But this sounds crazy, but I'm hearing this this this spooky childlike screaming, and I can't figure out where it's coming from. And uh I think something's up. Something's up. And and Stacey's like, she genuinely really thought I was messing with her. And I'm like, okay, listen, but I'll just I'll take you to where it is. I take her back to the spot where I'd been sleeping, and for a bit there's no noise. I'm like, believe me, like this is happening. It's it's real, I'm not making this up, I'm not messing around. And suddenly she hears it, and we we both hear it. This this distant, unplaceable sound. And she goes, Oh, that is spooky. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, it's it's spooky, all right, but uh I can't figure out where it's coming from. We gotta like turn the aquarium upside down because there's kids running around here somewhere. And so we decide to start searching, and we search for just a few minutes, and uh finally make a left out from by the spider crabs and go toward toward the middle of the Northern Pacific Gallery, and I turn my head to my left and I look and see in the shaft of of in a shaft of light inside the otter exhibit, one of the sea otters is just sitting there just yelling for no reason. And the exhibit is soundproof or almost soundproof. So from the window, from where I was at the window, I couldn't hear it at all, but I could just see this otter sitting there with its mouth agape, just like it's like it's miming this noise. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Okay. Um, and I go around the side, and I guess the soundproofing isn't as strong over by spider crabs, because there I could hear it, and go in front, can't hear it. I'm like, Stacy, uh, we found our ghost children. It's the otters.

SPEAKER_08 7:42

The otters! Oh my gosh, I'm gonna put in a clip of how they actually sound because it does sound like screaming children.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yeah, they it's it sounds almost exactly like screaming children.

SPEAKER_07 7:56

Sea otters may look like they would make a cute little sound, but in fact their vocalizations are a lot more like a banshee screaming, and that is very normal for them. They will make that sound to communicate with one another. Sometimes if they see people in the distance and they think, oh, that might get me a snack, they will emit this very high-pitched scream. So sea otter screaming sounds very normal for sea otters.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

And like in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night, yeah at the aquarium next to the spider crabs.

SPEAKER_08 8:23

It's already spooky.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

So anyway. Um So children were safe. Children were safe, nobody was breaking the rules.

SPEAKER_08 8:29

Otters were just having a conversation.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

And my uh my scientific, rationalist, you know, view of the world was was was vindicated. I was glad I didn't have to acknowledge the existence of ghosts. Uh not that night. Not that night, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 8:41

Yeah, maybe after you listen to this podcast episode.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Perhaps, maybe.

SPEAKER_08 8:44

Next up we have a story from Rachel Cushman. Rachel is a dive safety officer at the aquarium, and she was also on a previous episode of Pod Civic. Check it out in season one. It's all about diving at the aquarium.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

So when I first started working at the aquarium uh 12 years ago, I did a lot of the administrative work for the dive office, which means that a lot of the stuff I needed to do in kind of a quiet space. So I would come and do my work a lot of times after hours when the volunteers weren't here. In fact, a lot of people would jokingly call me the ghost DSO because I was always here after hours when usually no one else was, and certainly no dive operations were happening, but I was able to get my work done a lot better. Well, now the ghost DSO name kind of morphed into something else because I think I met a ghost while coming in after hours on a late shift once. Um actually it has happened more than once, if I'm being honest, which is why I really think there's a ghost. Um so at the end of our shift, all of the dive volunteers will fill all of our scuba tanks, right? We fill them with regular air, all topped, ready to go from the next day, and we close all the valves really tight so that that high pressure doesn't escape. Well, it's very interesting and very spooky when at least three hours after everyone has left the dive locker, all of a sudden you start hearing a very faint little in the dive locker. And then it gets a little bit louder. And you don't know what it is, and then you run out and you see, okay, there's air escaping from one of the scuba cylinders, one of them that was closed three hours ago. Why is it air escaping? It's not like anyone came by and actually turned the handle or anything. So, okay, that's weird. I'll go, I'll turn it off. Hours later, a different from a different part of the locker. And across the locker on the other side are some other scuba cylinders that were filled days before. And they started leaking little by little. At that point, you can just imagine I finished my work really quickly and just left the aquarium. And as I was leaving, I was talking to that. Well, I don't know what the spooky ghost was in the dive blocker. But I can tell you, in the 12 years that it's actually the same story has now happened more than once, and I have come to terms with whoever this creepy ghost is in the dive blocker who is just wanting to give me a Haby G bees.

SPEAKER_08 11:31

Our next story is from Benjamin Rodriguez. Ben is a security officer at the aquarium.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

When I started here, I was working in the gift store. This was after we closed. I came to use the bathroom, so I was walking through admin area, and when I got to the area where the food prep kitchen is, uh actually when I was coming back, I was walking through the double doors, and I just heard like a loud, like booming laugh that just like it sounded like somebody heard the funniest joke of their life. And this is like nine. It's like nine o'clock at night. I kind of tiptoed my way through because when I walked through there was nobody here, so I was just like, okay, who's who's in the area? And I kind of got to where the green room is and just kind of got the chills, and like because that's where I heard the laugh, and I was like, you know what, there's nobody here, I'm gonna keep going. So the next morning I come in and for some reason I just stopped and started reading the articles in front of John's office. And there are articles about Warren, the founder of the Aquarium. And one of the first paragraphs on the article, there's like five articles on the one that I chose to read Warren was known for his booming laugh that would echo through the admin area. And uh that like gave me the chills. Like, holy cow, like is that what I heard? And as I keep reading the second or third paragraph, there's another sentence in there that states that Warren was a Marine back in his time. And being that I was also a Marine, I kind of feel that like he was kind of like, hey, I know who you are. Yes, like he was saying hi to me, and I honestly feel that like he he is still here. I I think he is. I I feel his energy sometimes. That's so cool. It really is. I think it's really cool, right? It's hi, Warren.

SPEAKER_08 13:14

Our next story is from Gregory Garcia. Greg is a member of our IT team and also a former member of our A V team.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

There was a time when I was in A V and I stayed late for a late night, all alone in the mezzanine, which is the on the third floor of Pacific Visions, when I heard a laugh from the stairwell from what sounded like a little girl. I was so spooked. Some time went by and I was working on a video where I heard again this little girl's laugh come from the stairwell. It seemed very weird as the lighting from the stairwell has motion detection and turns on when anybody's moving. There were no lights turning on. Instead of going down the stairwell, I took the elevator to the second floor of Pacific Visions to see that PV was oddly slow. I walked up the stairwell to see that there was no one there. Needless to say, as soon as my time to leave for that day came, I left right away.

SPEAKER_08 14:10

Our next story is from Josh Wagner. Josh is an Aquarist, and he's actually also on a previous episode of Podcific back in season one, all about jellies. Check it out after you're done listening to this episode.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

So this was kind of weird. Uh where our theater is used to be the backstage jellies area. And uh there's always it was always like kind of weird and spooky over there, but uh So one day I'm working, working by myself, and jelly work is just like pipetting stuff, like staring into a a dish. And then uh to my right, uh one of my siphon hoses, which is bent to a 90-degree to clean the jelly tanks, uh, for no reason I could see out of the corner of my eye, kind of lift up and fall to the ground, and like for no plausible reason. Uh, and it was weird enough that I said to myself by myself in that area, you know, what was that? Seriously. So it was kind of weird, and I was like, you know, stuff falls or whatever. But uh, but so like I put it back where it was and like smacked the table around and like shook the table, and like literally it didn't move. So it was super strange.

SPEAKER_08 15:14

There was no way it could have fallen on its own.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

I'll tell you right now, there is absolutely no way it could have done it by itself.

SPEAKER_08 15:21

Dun dun dun haunted jelly lab.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

So yeah, definitely haunted down in the jelly lab.

SPEAKER_08 15:28

Our next story is from Megan Smiley. Megan is our sea otter program manager, and she's also a previous Poncific guest. She was actually our very first episode, all about sea otters, of course. If you need some information on the adorable sea otters after listening to this episode, you can check it out.

SPEAKER_05 15:43

So behind the scenes in our sea otter habitat, we have a motion sensor that is all of our lights are on a timer, and when motion is happening, the lights stay on, and when motion is not happening, we turn the lights off to save power. And this is in the staff working area, not on the exhibit. So I was working behind the scenes away from the sensor, um, kind of in an L shape away from the sensor. So there's walls and concrete walls between myself and this sensor. And I was up there for about 20 or 25 minutes, and the sensor had shut off because it had not detected any movement. Uh I finished up my session with animal. I sat my stuff down, and all of a sudden the lights turn on and I walk over, and there's no one there. And I instantly was like, hello. And I looked down below the stairs. There was no one. The door did not open or close. It just turned on and detected motion, even though there was no one else there but me.

SPEAKER_08 16:49

And no otters running around.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

No otters.

SPEAKER_08 17:00

Our last guest today is Perla Barajas. She is our retail supervisor. She works in our Pacific Collections gift store. Our gift store seems to be a hotspot, so she has a couple of stories.

SPEAKER_06 17:11

So one night when I was closing with Charles Senoyuki, uh, we were cleaning the sales floor. It was after a late night uh when we used to have Shark Lagoon nights. And I came out of the stock room and I saw this individual uh standing by the jewelry. Uh we used to have a little island just staring at the jewelry and it looked off. The eerie part was that it looked at me. And that was the very first time uh a ghost stared at right at my eyes. I froze and didn't move, closed my eyes, opened them again, and it was gone. But the feeling was definitely there. It was very fun, I guess. We have a bookcase where the book just plops out of the shelf, but doesn't hit the ground right away. It kind of like suspends for split second and then it drops. Um that one's also recorded. Uh nobody knew what to say or do at that point, but I remember getting that record.

SPEAKER_08 18:26

The ghost wanted to read a book.

SPEAKER_06 18:27

Yeah. Like, hey, definitely.

SPEAKER_08 18:34

Some context for this last story. Perla is talking about a storage area behind the scenes of the aquarium.

SPEAKER_06 18:39

We used to keep our merchandise in there. Um, so I went in there to do inventory and I saw this person walk by. And I said hello and looked at me, kinda like nodded and continue walking. I finished my inventory. This person never came out of the room because I kept checking. I was I wonder who this person was. And once I was done, I started to walk away. And curiosity kinda hit in, and I was wondering if there was a door on the other side that I did not know about. So I ended up walking that way to find out the there were no exit. It was just concrete, concrete wall, con very thick concrete wall.

SPEAKER_08 19:25

So much fun. Oh my gosh, someone or something wanted the scoop on what's gonna be in the gift stores. They wanted to check out our storage.

SPEAKER_07 19:34

Thank you for joining us for this extra spooky Halloween episode of Podcific. Our next episode will be back to regularly scheduled programming where you can learn all about the Aquarium of the Pacific's conservation efforts, animal care, and more. Aquarium of the Podcific is brought to you by Aquarium of the Pacific, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

SPEAKER_08 19:56

Keep up with the Aquarium on social media at Aquarium Pacific on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_07 20:02

This podcast is produced by Aaron Lundy and Madeline Walden. Our music is by Andrew Reitzma, and our podcast art is by Randy Kenney. Special thanks to Cecile Fisher, Anitsa Viez, our audiovisual and education departments, and our amazing podcast guests for taking time out of their day to talk about the important work that they do.

SPEAKER_08 20:20

Podcific isn't possible without the support of the Aquarium's donors, members, guests, and supporters. Thanks so much for listening.