What exactly is a marine biologist?

What is a Marine Biologist?

• For the longest time now i have loved animals and at the moment dolphins. My family thinks I should have a job working for dolphins. I have a feeling that its not a stage like all other teenage girls, because i have always loved animals and have been riding for 9 years straight. My questions are- What really is a Marine Biologist? What would you do? Are there any other jobs besides working at a aquarium that involve in working with the sea life? What is a good salary to make these days? Besides the simple Vet, what are other jobs that have to with animals. Also any information on any of these are great! To learn more about Dolphins today I have just adopted a dolphin, and will plan on doing other animals to learn about them too. I live on the coast so i have been on whale watches and just adored them. Thank you!

• Answer:

  Marine biologists study the oceans, this encompasses everything from the study of marine animal and plant/ algae taxonomy, physiology, ecology and behaviour to chemical processes such as phosphorous and carbon cycles and physical processes such as tides and currents.Most Marine Biologists do not work in aquariums, jobs can be found in fisheries and aquaculture, marine resource management, conservation, environmental impact assessment, government advisory bodies, the scientific media, ecotourism and other leisure industries and pressure groups. A lot of people seem to believe that marine biologists all work with dolphins, whales and sharks but that is simply not true. These jobs are very rare and only a fortunate few work in that field. Most marine biologist don't study animals at all. A large percentage study algae, phytoplankton and chemical and physical oceanography looking at cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous and at processes determining tides and ocean currents. The vast majority of living organisms that are studied are zooplankton, tiny invertebrates that live in the water column. Many others study other invertebrates, mainly molluscs such as barnacles , a lot study commercially important species such as oysters or mussels. Fewer study vertebrates although there are a lot of fishery scientists looking at overfishing and population trends of commercially important species. As for the salary, it's usually pretty poor this is not a career you can do for the pay; while many job sites will state the starting salary for a marine biologist with an MSc is about £20k (about $30 000), that is quite inaccurate. You will be applying for a lot of jobs in the £10- £15k ($15-20 000) range. But you usually start out literally with nothing; it's become normal for a huge proportion of graduates to start out doing unpaid work experiences for several months or even years. £20k ($30 000) may be what you can expect with an MSc and a lot of unpaid work experience or maybe with PhD.Just to give you an idea, I've recently been working with a charity working with marine mammals that advertised for research assistants on a voluntary basis, only accommodation provided, no money. They received applications from people with PhDs with postdoc work experience and publications on their CV. There is two major components to a career in marine biology; schooling and experience. You will need at least a Bachelors degree to find a job in this field, if you get a 'normal' BSc as a result of an online course it shouldn't make any difference if you studied for it online or at a 'real' University. A BSc will not get you far however, obtaining a Masters course or even a Phd. (a Doctorate) is highly recommended as it will dramatically increase job opportunities. To do a Masters takes about 2 years in the US (1 in the UK) and the duration of a Phd. varies from about 3 to 6 years but getting on a fully funded PhD, unless you are not picky about what you want to study, can be very hard to. Marine Biology is very competitive, however, so you usually need a lot of experience as well; volunteering or interning at relevant places greatly increase your chances; aquariums, marine labs or even natural history museums, any experience is good experience. It's worth mentioning that many people have slightly distorted views on the work of zoologists based on what is shown on TV documentaries ; people working with big charismatic animals, out in the field in glorious weather all day witnessing amazing behaviours. But TV programs are produced to appeal to the majority of people and the majority of people want to see big charismatic animals doing exciting stuff. Most people inzoology do not work with mammals or even vertebrates and even when you are working with charismatic megafauna, it's not as glamorous as it's made to look on the TV, for every day of field work you are looking at several days of data entry and processing and statistics and it's all decidedly hands off, not crocodile hunter style Also, contrary to popular belief, dolphin trainers are not marine biologists and if you love dolphins, it's not a job you should consider: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkECjbnYH6SappOFL9kGn77ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120129095539AAEh5XR Also have a look here: http://marinebio.org/students.asp for career advise http://marinebioblog.blogspot.com/ http://seawatchfoundation.blogspot.com/ For real life accounts of working in marine bio Good Luck!