What does a marine biologist do?
As a marine biologist I spend part of my time: • doing scientific experiments in the field and/or in my laboratory at my place of employment. The type of work I do ranges from measuring different compounds in sea water to experimenting with what effect different levels of nutrients have on the general health of organisms that live in the worlds oceans. • reading scientific papers in my field of study so I can keep informed of what other researchers are doing. • writing my conclusions to my experiments and writing my own scientific papers based on my research findings. • talking on the telephone and communicating via email to other biologists and researchers about different aspects of my work and their work. • planning and giving lectures about my research findings and planning experiments to do on future field trips.
A marine biologist is someone who works in some branch of marine biology. Given that around 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in oceans, you can imagine that marine biology is a very large field, encompassing everything from studies of ocean currents to analysis of the creatures who live next to hydrothermal vents. As a general rule, a marine biologist is passionate about and interested in some aspect of the ocean, and he or she usually works to study and preserve ocean life while also educating people about it. Marine biology itself is usually defined as a study of the marine ecosystem, which includes the world’s oceans and some brackish regions such as estuaries. The animal and plant life in the ocean is incredibly diverse, ranging from single celled organisms like diatoms to massive blue whales. Because marine biology is such a varied field of study, a marine biologist typically picks a single aspect to focus on. For example, a marine biologist might specialize in fisheri
