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

How do I become a marine mammal vet?

• I absolutely love Marine mammal's and I know the pay isn't great and I want to help aquatic animals. I just have no Idea what college to go to and I don't know how many years it would take. Any Idea's?

• Answer:

  Cal King may be a little sarcastic, but essentially he is right. Marine Mammal careers are highly competitive and tough to get into. Just consider how many institutions there are in the world that have need of a marine mammal vet and how many people want to work with marine mammals! That being said, I fully understand wanting to help sick and injured marine mammals. Generally I would recommend aiming to go into rehabilitation, not working in a marine park. Despite these parks claiming there animals receive excellent care, they are often in poor health and die prematurely despite veterinary care. Either way the path to get there is probably quite similar. First off, I would look into the requirements of becoming a vet: http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2010/12/06/best-careers-2011-veterinarian "Vets must graduate with a doctorate of veterinary medicine (DVM) from a four-year program at an accredited college of veterinary medicine. There are only 28 such programs in the United States, so competition for slots is intense (just one in three applicants is accepted). Graduates must pass state exams to obtain a state license before they can begin practicing. Most DVM candidates have college degrees and have taken healthy doses of science courses as undergraduates. Prior work with animals can be helpful to admission as well. Most DVM programs require the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), and a few require more specialized tests." As far as I know there is no specialised marine mammal vet program, although the Royal Veterinary College in London offers an MSc in Wild Animal Health: http://www.rvc.ac.uk/Postgraduate/Courses/MScWildAnimalHealth/Index.cfm The way to go about getting into the field, as most marine mammal jobs, is really experience, volunteer and intern at the right places, stranding program or marine mammal rehabilitation centres. Mote Marine Lab offers stranding and animal care internships: http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=College%20Internship%20Ops%20-%20Stranding%20Investigations&category=Education&submenu=Education http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=College%20Internship%20Ops%20-%20Animal%20Hospital&category=Education Most rehab centres will also take volunteers or interns: http://www.pacificmmc.org/caring.html http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/Get-Involved/volunteer/ http://www.northcoastmmc.org/opportunities/internships/ http://www.tmmsn.org/volunteer/volunteer.htm http://www.mmsc.org/help/internships.html In the UK you can take a marine mammal medic course with British Divers Marine Life so it might be worth enquiring with some of these centres if they offer an equivalent experience: http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/index.php?page=training-course