The Keys VS. Great Barrier Reef

[jpfelix]

[Jake_07]

Originally posted by ferg822
alright (although i've considered the pay many times before) what else can I do that has to do with oceans/marine life/SCUBA diving???

dive instructer coral/fish collecter or do those jobs pay less?

[RicksReefs]

Originally posted by Jake_07
dive instructer coral/fish collecter or do those jobs pay less?

If you can find the right gig, divemasters usually do "OK".
an indo fish collector makes less than squat by our standards.
an american collector can do OK but there's are no liscences being issued in florida. I don't know about hawaii.

Originally posted by billsreef
there is something to be said for actually liking to go to work.

and that, my friend, says it all. chase your happiness, not the dollar.

[RicksReefs]

Jake_07
Registered Member

Registered: Nov 2007
Location: QLD, Australia


DOH! didn't notice you were an out of stater. my understanding is Aussie rules are pretty strict on collecting.

[uscgbeachbum]

To be honest with you, if that's what you want to do the best job would be to work with an environmental firm in the Caribbean/Central America to do coral reef studies. I'm a coastal engineer and I develop marinas for large developments (Atlantis, Ginn sur Mer, etc.). All of these places need to do a seagrass and coral reef study to make sure that they aren't destroying anything.

[brandon7491]

u are in a situation the the typical higshcool student is in. i wanna do something fun happy exciting. Well in your case that is marine biology and u wanna go diving,exploring the reefs,go to austrailia and other places that have exotic reefs. an average marine biologist gets paid roughly 30k a year and the way u spend it is up to you. For all the work u put into it college wise you end up losing money in the long run. Also its a choice of lifestyle. Do u mind living in a small house or apartment and driving a crappy car? and when do u think u will have enough money to retire? plus support a wife,kids,extra things. I am telling you this because i have been there. When i graduated i wanted to do ecology. I loved it hands down. So when i asked the professor what do they get paid and he said 30k a year and this was about 20-30yrs ago. I said i dont wanna take water samples all day and then get paid 30k a year. I said i wanna retire,have nice cars,house,family,go out to eat at nice places,live in a nice neighboor hood. So then i went to medical school and became a gastrointerolgist. Point im trying to tell u and i tell my son is that pick something u like and dont just do it for the money but at the same time dont pick something that is fun and forget about the money factor. hope this helps(i am typing on my sons account so pardon the sports and girls thing lol)