marine biology

[rossthefishman]

Hello, I'm very interested in the field of marine biology, and i'm searching for someone who would know about it. Do we have any marine biologists on the forum, or anyone who has a relative that's one? If so, could you give me some info on career opportunities and salary ranges? thanks so much

-Tyler

[Anthony Calfo]

not sure if this helps you, but some local high schools and most universities have a "career library" (section of the library proper or even a small dedicated library). Therein you will find tools to compare and contrast vocations relative to averages (salaries, growth in the given field, education required, etc)

Generally speaking, a hard science degree (if non-specialized) is rather low paying. Better pay in science (usually) requires many years (and additional expense) of education and job experience.

For better financial prospects (so you can better afford having a family, owning land, etc) I suggest you at least consider the ornamental side of marine studies or (perhaps better yet) "blue-prospecting" (microbiology degree put to use for pharmaceuticals, industry and the like)

best of luck and life,

Anthony

[billsreef]

It's not the career of choice if money is your main goal. Career choices range from lab tech, aquaculture, public aquariums, University jobs, teaching, local conservation departments, National Marine Fisheries and similar. The higher paying end is probably University Professor, after you've gotten a Phd and been around long enough to be a full professor. Working in for University myself, I also know the folks with comparable jobs in the med school get paid much more than any of us in the marine science department. That said, it's an enjoyable career with rewards other than money, and can still pay the bills. Just don't expect to be buying the latest, greatest of everything.

[rossthefishman]

what if you get employed by a large company, such as seaworld or a fish harvesting company? would that give you a larger revenue?

[J. Montgomery]

Originally posted by Anthony Calfo
Generally speaking, a hard science degree (if non-specialized) is rather low paying. Better pay in science (usually) requires many years (and additional expense) of education and job experience.

You got that right! . . . I should have stayed in engineering, but NO, I thought chemistry and biology would be cool . . .

I graduated from college with two BS degrees and chemistry and biology only to find out that I could get paid more working at Circuit City with a high school diploma. So back to school it was, for 5 more years to get a PhD

And no, I seriously doubt SeaWorld is paying very much, nor do government jobs, or academic jobs. Like Anthony stated, to make any money in science, industry is your best bet.

[kevin2000]

I suspect you will find that getting a job with that degree is going to be tough ... I have never read a post from anyone in that profession that encourages people to follow their path.

[jaymz101]

Run while you still can!! Im a field biologist for the state of Florida. I pull nets, count fish, kill fish, collect samples, enter data, proof data, re enter data, fill out paperwork, fix boats, fix engines, fix nets, fix anything else, deal with a huge beurocracy, will probably have skin cancer from the daily sun burns in the next 5 years, am thoroughly unappreciated, and ignored by superiors and PhD's alike. I do all of this for a measly 30 Gs a year. Ill say it again. Run. Run hard. Run long. Run fast. Yes I get to see alot of interesting stuff, but nothing is worth what I go through on a daily basis.

By the way Sea World pays less than the State does. So does Disney, and every aquarium Ive ever applied to.

If I was in it for the money, I would have done something else. On the other hand, I do get to live in Florida and Im on the water almost every other day.

Most State wildlife institutions are severely underfunded and focus on enforcement, not science. What little money there is for science is under a constant threat of being cut by the legislature either to appease republican voters by shrinking govrnment or to appease democrat voters by giving the money to the cause of the day, and any extra money coming in needs their approval to be spent. (That means I need an act of friggin' congress to get a raise)



Im not bitter though. I know everythiong I just said sounds a bit harsh. It was meant to. In my experience most students entering Marine Biology fields in college want to play with Flipper or dive on coral reefs day in and day out. Colleges promote those glorious few (and I mean very few) who can say they do that every day to get your (or your parents) money. Most Marine Biology programs suffer a 50% attrition rate in the freshman year and end up gradyating something like 25% of the entering freshman class in a mariune biology field. Be realistic. Marine Biology is a hard, dirty, strenuous job for most of us.

If what I said didnt scare you off immediately, you might have the heart it takes to be a net monkey, tank cleaner, fish wrestler, or whatever. Get an internship. Go do whatever it is that you think you want to do in the field. That is the best advice anyone can give you. Talk with the folks you work with day in and day out and you'll get a better picture about marine biology that you can get in any flier of forum.

[jaymz101]

sorry for the poor spelling, Im suffering a bit of heat stroke and sun giddyness from the field today.

[Kannin]

I am not a marine biologist but I do play one on TV... No, really.
I wanted to be one and that was the program I entered into back in 1985. Shortly there after, I learned (the easy way) that everything jaymz101 says is true. An influental person in my life told me that I should make alot of money and buy a boat so I could play with the fishes. In the grand scheme of things, scientists are relatively under paid, under appreciated and over worked.

Good luck in what ever you choose.

[geekreef_05]

move to canada, then work for our gov't as a scientist, and you'll be ok. you wont be rich...like 'i work for a big pharam drug company in the US as a research scientist' but you will not be in the low end of the pay scale.

Top Canadian scientists working for gov't make $120 CAN. And our dollar is getting pretty close to your's again.

[Fishbulb2]

The best advice I can give you is to do some summer internships or try to find a marine biology lab near you (I don't know where you live though so I can't help). As everyone has said, biology is often time hard and low paying. Although you could always do what I did and marry a lawyer. Problem solved. Hehe, the wife would kill me if she read that. But seriously, an internship will help you really see if you enjoy the day to day activities and you can see how other graduate students cope with the lifestyle. I find in biomedical science (I do neuroscience), the pay ranges huge in academia. It depends on how good you are and how much money you rake in from grants. Granted it's not marine biology but we have several faculty here that have earned numerous patents, prestigious awards, and earn a ton. Enough to buy prime real estate here in San Diego. This is certainly not the norm but a lucky few can make decent money. All in all, I regret that everyone I knew back in high school steered me away from marine biology and herpetology when I was looking into schools. Just do whatever it takes to get your feet wet and you'll either find out 1) the money doesn't matter to you as long as you get to do what you like, or 2) field work harsh and not your bag of tea. Either way you should have no regrets after a giving it a fair shot.
Just my 2 cents and limited experience.
Fishbulb
Univeristy of California, San Diego

[jaymz101]

Correct. The other option is to find a sugar momma (or sugar daddy) and keep doing what you love. Problems (most anyway) solved.

[hahnmeister]

I think that the future for Marine Biologists will become very good. Right now, they are taken for granted, but as the earth's resources dwindle, Im sure they will become a higher demanded profession as governments realize the need for higher levels of care for their surrounding waters... for food if nothing else.

Also, its what you make of it. If you are an industrious sort, the usual fields of MB arent what limits you. Look at Jeff Turner, founder of ORA and now RAS. He makes great coin travelling the US, heck, world, telling people how to spend their money on very large private reef aquariums (and setting them up). You can start companies (Sprung), write articles (Sprung, Delbeek, Fossa, etc), books, lecture, etc. If you have an eye for making money and finding the 'needs' of an area that havent been met, you can do well in any industry. All it takes is a self-starting motivated entrepreneurial spirit, and the degree you pick wont define your earning potential. You could end up making an important discovery or breakthrough in some area, and then the rest is up to you. You could help larger companies like Kent, All-Glass, Marineland, etc... or start a new smaller company with specialty products for home and public, or even natural use (if there is another skimmer company out there, we all know people will buy it up). Im just saying, if you are really into it, there is nothing that can stop you from making a very good living. I think there is more potential in doing something you are really good at and like doing and finding a way to make money doing it than to do something just for the money. You might make a better starting income as an engineer, but unless you are into it, you may not go far with it anyways. So do what you love... the rest will follow.

[Jens Kallmeyer]

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

[J. Montgomery]

Originally posted by hahnmeister
I think that the future for Marine Biologists will become very good. Right now, they are taken for granted, but as the earth's resources dwindle, Im sure they will become a higher demanded profession as governments realize the need for higher levels of care for their surrounding waters... for food if nothing else.

As a scientist and former government employee, thats funny. No one in government is well paid, only Department of Defense contractors like Haliburton are making money.

[Fishbulb2]

I think we scared the OP away.

[kolokefalo]

I started out kind of wide-eyed about becoming a MB many moons ago when I first got into aquariums at 17 years old. After 2 years of college when I got to speak to a few who work for Sea World Orlando I joined the Air Force then got out and got myself a job at the Post Office.

Everything people are telling is true. The one guy at Sea World said and I quote, "Dude, the best thing about being an MB is telling chicks at bars you are a Marine Biologist. All I do everyday is shove vitamins into smelts. I don't tell them that part though."

[hahnmeister]

Hmmm... it seems MB in the US is underrated. Overseas, its pretty much a scientific degree. If you are willing to travel, you could live in paradise. I remember the guys from Lizard Islandbeing happy about their choice.

[DrDNA]

If marine biology is your passion then follow it. But, if you want a decent career in science, you should plan on, at minimum, getting a master's degree. There is no doubt you could earn a lot more money being an engineer, attorney (God help you..), accountant, etc. But, if you have a job that you truly enjoy and look forward to doing every day, you will have a better quality of life than just getting a fat paycheck doing a job you don't have a passion for.

I have a BSc in marine ecology and PhD in genetics. Very few people who get 4 year degrees in marine biology end up doing anything marine biology-related for a career. With just a BS degree, you'd probably be making around $40K-ish a year, depending what you were doing and where you were working. With an advanced degree, you could double that, though not initially. Even many university faculty positions in the biological sciences (excluding medicine of course) only start people in the $40-50K range, though they top out well over $100K after several years. But, you also are under the gun to write grants and bring in money to support "academic big business" and have to deal with a lot of unversity beaurocratic BS. It is not the ivory tower most people believe it to be, and is the reason I work for another part of government.

Anyway, you'll get a lot of differing opinions!

[dots]

Originally posted by DrDNA
If marine biology is your passion then follow it. But, if you want a decent career in science, you should plan on, at minimum, getting a master's degree. There is no doubt you could earn a lot more money being an engineer, attorney (God help you..), accountant, etc. But, if you have a job that you truly enjoy and look forward to doing every day, you will have a better quality of life than just getting a fat paycheck doing a job you don't have a passion for.

I have a BSc in marine ecology and PhD in genetics. Very few people who get 4 year degrees in marine biology end up doing anything marine biology-related for a career. With just a BS degree, you'd probably be making around $40K-ish a year, depending what you were doing and where you were working. With an advanced degree, you could double that, though not initially. Even many university faculty positions in the biological sciences (excluding medicine of course) only start people in the $40-50K range, though they top out well over $100K after several years. But, you also are under the gun to write grants and bring in money to support "academic big business" and have to deal with a lot of unversity beaurocratic BS. It is not the ivory tower most people believe it to be, and is the reason I work for another part of government.

Anyway, you'll get a lot of differing opinions!

Agreed, it is too bad that one can't always make a living on thier passion.

But if you are passionate about something and want a career of it, don't fight it and find a way to have your cake and eat it to buy finding something that deals with the subject and makes a steady living.

I grew up around hot rods and have a passion for cars that you would not believe. I would love to have opened up a shop, but its a niche market that is ever changing and may not be around when I was ready to retire..........So I got a Mechanical Engineering degree.

I found that I get the same creative outlet and satisfaction I have the last few years designing custom furniture for the State as I did with cars. In the end I found I just like to design and create and it didn't matter what it is. In fact, that is how I got into reefkeeping because I had to sell my 67 Camaro, move into an apartment and needed an outlet to keep from going crazy. This hobby did just that.

If the monetary thing is a concern, find the driving force behind your interest and see if that can be applied in a more lucritive field.

Cheers.....

[justinl]

for the most part, yes i agree that marine sci is fairly low paying. there are however the odd high paying jobs... like a PHd who runs a lab for example.

If you like marine sci, go for it, but be prepared because it won't be terribly easy on you. Ive commited myself to the fish because i cant stand people ... basically, the way i see it, i was meant to be in marine sci research. i may dabble a bit in the ornamental side though... after all i do love the hobby too.

basically what im trying to say is that you have to do some introspective meditation. think about what is important to you. a nice car? big house? a family? the ocean? certain fish? inverts? who are you? can you deal with sitting in a lab all day? in the field all day? there are many considerations, financialbeing but one, but dont forget that this job can be the most amazing job (at least imo). i mean, how many high paid lawyers or business people can claim that they are paid to scuba dive twice a week?

a good way to dip your toes into the marine waters is to volunteer. public aquariums, universities, research facilities... most if not all need volunteers.

btw jaymz, i think it's time to rethink your career choice! lol. i havent yet met a marine biologist who didnt like their job.

[billsreef]

Originally posted by justinl
i havent yet met a marine biologist who didnt like their job.

He's got a good point there. I may be driving an old truck, and if my wife's business has a bad month, money might be tight. However, the work is good if you like it It comes down to life priorities. If driving new expensive sports car is important, this is the wrong career. If you don't mind driving old vehicles, stinking of fish and/or frozen fish foods, riding on open cockpit boats in the dead of winter to stock clams, riding on those same boats on a beautiful summer day, staring into microscopes and measuring samples etc. , it can be a fun career.

[barnett8]

well thanks for dashing a 9th graders hopes and dreams (just kidding). that sounds right up my ally I know that I'm not the original poster but you guys sure helped me with your information.


Thanks!

[Jens Kallmeyer]

Originally posted by barnett8
well thanks for dashing a 9th graders hopes and dreams (just kidding). that sounds right up my ally I know that I'm not the original poster but you guys sure helped me with your information.


Thanks!

At least you can't say now that you haven't been warned!

[corbett_n]

I am a marine biologist for the great state of SC and love it. The pay isn't great but the things I get to do at work is amazing sometimes. I primarily work on Sturgeon but I get to work on other projects from Red drum, sharks, corals, shrimp, Turtles, pelagic fish and freshwater fishes. It is so rewarding actually doing something for our fisheries, it almost makes me not feel guilty about having fish and corals as pets. Sometimes, I can't belive the fun and intersting things I get to do at work. It could judt be where I work, but I am appreciated and treated very well.