How do you become a marine mammal vet and what exactly do they do?

What to study to become a Marine vet?

• I always loved Marine Biology, and after watching the Dolphin Tale, I just wanted to do that for the rest of my life. I'm studying all 3 sciences- Biology and Chemistry at A level, and Physics as an Intermediate (with 3 other intermediate subjects). I want to work as a marine vet, sort of like in the film The Dolphin Tale. But I'm not exactly sure what Undergraduate course I would need to take in University to do so- Marine biology? Animal behavior? Marine zoology? I am really confused! And I would love it if you could help answer my question. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And is it true, that people who go after this kind of job do NOT get a very good salary? People often tell me to work at Sea World if its what I really want to do. But I'm not so sure as yet. And I would like to attend the University of Newcastle in England. Thank you.

• Answer:

  Generally, any job working with marine mammals is poorly paid and highly competitive and although 'normal' vets are generally well paid, when you consider how many institutions there are that require marine mammal vets and how many people want to work in that position, there is a good chance the pay is going to be horrible for this position as well. I don't think it's a good idea to do marine biology or zoology at university, you are essentially studying to become a vet, just a vet specialising in marine mammals. You will still need to do a veterinary degree. There are a couple of universities offering Veterinary Medicine but I don't think Newcastle is on that list: http://search.ucas.com/cgi-bin/hsrun/search/search/StateId/Qr5B53fonKwPhbypuTJuAgbtTJzGy-41yx/HAHTpage/search.HsSearch.submitForm?txtSubject=veterinary&cmbQual=&cmbAttend=&cmbInst=&button1.x=0&button1.y=0 There is no specific marine mammal veterinary course but the Royal Veterinary College offers an MSc course entitled Wild Animal Health: http://www.rvc.ac.uk/Postgraduate/Courses/MScWildAnimalHealth/Index.cfm The way to go about getting into this field, as most marine mammal jobs, is really experience, volunteer and intern at the right places, stranding program or marine mammal rehabilitation centres to specialise. There are no cetacean rehabilitation centres in the UK because, fortunately, it is essentially illegal to keep marine mammals in captivity in the UK. Usually animals are refloated immediately or put down if they are assessed as not being able to survive in the wild. It might seem cruel but looking at the cost of rehabilitation, this is really the sensible thing to do ( see http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=35266 for a more in depth discussion of this controversial topic). In the UK however, you can do a marine mammal medic course with British Divers Marine Life: http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/index.php?page=training-course which should be valuable experience I would also recommend contacting the UK Strandings Investigation Programme to see if you could do work experience with them. And of course you can always volunteer at seal sanctuaries for experience: http://www.sealsanctuary.co.uk/ Further abroad, Mote Marine Lab offers both an animal rehabilitation internship and a strandings internship: http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=College%20Internship%20Ops%20-%20Animal%20Hospital&category=Education There are also lots of rehabilitation centres in the US focussing on marine mammals. Clearwater, the home of Winter the dolphin from Dolphin's Tale also take interns: http://seewinter.com/get-involved/join-the-mission/internships Although I would always recommend Mote over Clearwater, I don't have a very high opinion of them and how they are using Winter as a cash cow, its' become all about media attention and money and not the dolphin's welfare. One place I would stay well away from is SeaWorld-and all other facilities keeping cetaceans for entertainment. Sure, they have need of vets on a regular basis, but you will be involved in a lot of distasteful husbandry. The health of long term captive cetaceans is usually very poor due to the stress they are under in this artificial environment and their immune systems are compromised. SeaWorld especially also engages in a lot of artificial insemination, often impregnating very young females that in the wild would never have calves at that age, and then prematurely separating mother and calf when the tanks become to crowded. Some examples of SeaWorld husbandry: http://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-hidden-cost-of-captivity-oral-health-of-killer-whales-exposed/ http://www.outsideonline.com/featured-videos/Keto-Endoscopy.html http://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/how-does-seaworld-masturbate-their-stud-killer-whales-rocker-tommy-lee-says-%E2%80%9Ccow-vaginas%E2%80%9D-and-he-is-almost-right/ (provocative title but read on to learn more about SW's AI program) I would say stick to rehab if you want to work in this capacity; Rehabilitation of wild cetaceans is a far worthier cause than keeping ailing animals just about healthy enough to jump through hoops for public entertainment