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Hi
There are some people that came out of "classical" marine biology and now make good money in the ornamental industry, but those are just very few. Sure, if you are a smart person and find that one niche where you can do what you like and make a good living, you are the lucky one.
But I've seen enough people not making it.
Being a classical geologist by training who has slowly ventured off into marine sciences, I've seen way too many freshmen enter the system with some rather obscure ideas about what marine biology means.....all those little princes and princessas that start feeling uncomfortable (to say the least) when they have to kill their first few specimen. This subject can be bloody, you better accept this before you start it. On land you call those folks treehuggers, in the sea I'd rather call them dolphinhuggers or turtlehuggers.
Even if we cut out the turtlehuggers and look at those that have the guts to remove those from fishes and other animals, most will find a job in a rather unrelated field. Many end up as sales reps for pharmaceutical or chemical companies, or for companies that sell lab equipment, because MB usually gives you a pretty broad background in all fields of science.
Those that stay in research will either end up as technician of some sort, usually badly treated by the administration, sometimes by the scientists and students as well, but always badly paid like jaymz101 already said.
Those that want to do an academic career have another couple of years of miserable pay and long hours ahead of them before eventually being the lucky ones to get a job as an assistant professor or some kind of researcher in a larger facility (like me), which is not badly paid but definitely not top of the line. You work long hours but usually have a higher degree of freedom than the average office worker.
The entire field is rather small, even when seen globally. Everybody knows everyone. At least in academia it is really important to get a good supervisor and to be at a good place with a good reputation. There is a "publish or perish" mentality in the field. If your supervisor hasn't published well in the last couple of years, he or she is academically dead.
If this is what you want to do, go for it. If I can't be out on a ship at least once a year for a couple of weeks I start to miss it dearly.
I simply have given up hopes to become rich one day.
Good luck and keep us posted on your decisions
Jens
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