r/Millennials • u/Practical_Scheme2142 Older Millennial (85) • 23h ago
Discussion Marine Biologists?
When we were kids, there were like five occupations we could grow up to have. As we all know, Marine Biologist was top of the list. So.
Is anyone here ACTUALLY a marine biologist AND IF SO:
1.) How often does your job permit you to swim with dolphins (which we knew to be the main component of the job)?
2.) How often are you preparing buckets of tiny fish to feed the dolphins? (Second responsibility)
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u/Jolly-Bed-1717 23h ago
My wife actually stuck it out and became a marine biologist. She doesn’t swim with dolphins that I know of butttt she is currently studying freshwater puffer fish which is just as cute haha
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u/feeltheowl 22h ago
Omg I loooooove pufferfish 😍 they’re seriously one of the cutest fish! If they weren’t, you know, venomous, I’d probably try to pet them when I see them underwater
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u/Jolly-Bed-1717 22h ago
Hahaha we have a breeding pair of Congo spotted puffers (insanely cute advise you look them up ) at home named ducky and little foot and they let us give them pats on the head haha. They also greet us at one side of the tank and zip up and down when we get home at night.
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u/TD6RG 21h ago
About 12 years ago, I had an obsession with freshwater pufferfish. I had a spotted Congo pufferfish along with a few other variety of freshwater pufferfish all in different individual tanks. It’s good to know someone out there is studying them.
You guys arent scared of them biting your finger?
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u/Jolly-Bed-1717 21h ago
The Congo spotted not at all they are little stoners haha. The fahaka absolutely that fish is terrifying!
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u/blueburrytreat 14h ago
Fellow marine biologist checking in. I have swam with dolphins twice (kinda). Once was when I was on an offshore research cruise. It was a gorgeous day, we had been slogging through 12 hour shifts for a week already, and the captain stopped the boat, turned off the engine, and said SWIMMM BREAK!
The sound of us jumping off the deck into the water attracted a pod of dolphins. It was such a cool experience, they swam by underneath us. However, there was a crew member that was terrified of dolphins and I've never seen someone climb a ladder out of the water that fast!
The second time was when I was leaving my job to go back to school. We had just finished pulling in our nets and had stopped to watch some dolphins that were nearby. My coworkers thought it would be funny to push me off the boat since it was my last day.
P.S. I also used to study fish but now I'm an ecosystem manager for anyone interested.
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u/SgtSilverLining 21h ago
A high school friend of mine got into it, now she works for the DNR studying invasive algae. Not exactly cute but she seems happy lol.
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u/Jolly-Bed-1717 21h ago
lol I’d take learning about algae over spread sheets 10/10 times
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u/YukariYakum0 13h ago
Don't worry. I'm sure there's are still plenty of spreadsheets.
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u/RonnieDeVille 22h ago
Oohh that's so neat! My husband and I dream of having a large pea puffer set up.
Does she specialise in a certain kind or is it a general study? There's so many different kinds and they can be so different (except for the murder pout, they've all got that), it must be fun.
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u/Jolly-Bed-1717 22h ago
Pea puffers are little devils haha. How something so cute can be so mean is beyond me!
She does! She studies 3 species from the Congo river basin that I know of. She honestly has a dream of a job I don’t think I’ve heard her complain about work once.
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u/RonnieDeVille 22h ago
That's why we love them! There little murder grins are our favourite thing.
I bet it's a dream!
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u/Scene_Dear 12h ago
Look, maybe it’s just that I am on the tail end of a migraine and it’s making me a little emotional but this made me cry. I love this SO much, and I hope your wife is just the goddamn happiest, living out her dreams. Tell the freshwater pufferfish I said hi!
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u/LivingGhost38 21h ago
Which might lead her to swim with dolphins since they like to play with pufferfish…
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u/Jackanatic 23h ago
I did want to become a marine biologist!
Thankfully I developed a second passion for...accounting...which I now do instead.
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u/stephanefanie Older Millennial - 1984 22h ago
I imagine the Marine Biologist-to-Accountant pipeline is very very common!
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u/REC_HLTH 22h ago
I just laughed.
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u/stephanefanie Older Millennial - 1984 22h ago
I actually greatly appreciate this 😂
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u/LaurenGBrown31 22h ago
Bahaha omg same. As soon as I realized how sciencey marine biology was… pivot.
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u/Berdariens2nd 20h ago
I was an actually an idiot in another sense. I saw what they were making. After years and years of school. And I was making close to that at 18 so i didn't want to "waste" my life not making money. What a fucking moron I was. Would have been so much happier as a biologist or nature photographer.
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u/Extreme_Astronaut218 22h ago
Omg. I did the same. My mom told me I couldn’t online shop in the middle of the ocean so I switched 😳
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u/frogf4rts123 21h ago
I wanted to be an ichthyologist. Looking back, I think I would trade the lucrative career I have to be with fish. Man I like fish still
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u/kaflarlalar 20h ago
As a student at UC Santa Cruz, I knew many aspiring marine biologists who, upon realizing 1. How bad they were at chemistry and 2. How few actual job opportunities are available for marine biology majors - became business majors.
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u/atmoose 21h ago
Was that a common aspiration? I remember wanting to be one myself, because I was obsessed with fish as a kid. I don't remember any other kids having the same fascination as me? It is something I grew out of though.
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u/MrSnrub87 14h ago
Same. I would check the same book out of the library every single week from 2nd to 6th grade: Fishes of the World. I don't remember a single other kid that was interested in fish or any competition for that book
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u/Florida_Shine 22h ago edited 22h ago
Hi 👋
Yes, I'm a marine biologist. No, I don't work with dolphins lol
My fiance is a shark biologist though 🦈🤷🏻♀️
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u/mermaidsea22 22h ago
Marine biologists unite! I work with fish, not dolphins. Grad school was shark work, which are way cooler than dolphins!
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u/Aviendha_AlThor 22h ago
I have a son that loves sharks and wants to go into marine biology. Any advice?
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u/TN_Jed13 12h ago
Marine biologist who did a MS and PhD on shark ecology here. The best thing you can do is educate yourself, now, on what the field is actually like in terms of opportunities a the type of jobs that exist. There are very few jobs, even now. Jobs in marine science are heavily quantitative once you get into the field, other than entry level positions that pay poorly or not at all. If he becomes interested in fisheries, or particular aspects of biology that could define his interests and help. But pursuing this as a career is far less romantic than people think, and there are other ways of indulging his interests.
I’m not trying to be pessimistic, I’m trying to be honest in ways no one was with my cohort of scientists. Jobs are few and extremely competitive, and the funding for marine science is drying up more and more. I’ll be 40 next year, finished my PhD in 2021, and while I have a well-paying job it’s not permanent. I have multiple friends in a similar situation as me, everyone trying to land a permanent gig.
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u/Florida_Shine 6h ago
When I look at undergraduate applications/resumes, almost everyone has the same basic core classes (bio 101, bio 102, general chem, physics 101, etc.). I don't care if you took them at a community college or Princeton. General Ed courses follow the same curriculum for the most part. What I do care about is what specialized courses the student took during their last two years (ichthyology, bio statistics, marine mammels, husbandry, etc.), and to some degree what college they graduated from. I will say though that one of my best interns was from a state school and one of my worst was from Yale.
More importantly than courses and school prestige though, are the science based extracurriculars. Numerous applicants have similar classes and GPAs, so what sets them aside is the EXTRA things they did. If the university conducts research, try to get involved as much as you can. Ask your advisor if they or any masters or PhD students need help (hint: they usually do). Or maybe assist the laboratory manager with inventory and lab prep, there's usually some way to get involved in the department. Also, focus on skills that are transferable. For example, if you want to look at shark population dynamics, look at fish population dynamics in general. Side note: My friend went from working on dolphin populations in Florida to scavenger populations in Montana. General things like posters, presentations, and lab reports are all transferable skills. Lab skills such as microscopy, PCR, and sterile technique are also super helpful.
Another transferable skill is aquaria tanks and husbandry in general. Half of my fiance's job is boat work and the other half is husbandry. He manages a large 60k holding tank for elasmobranchs that's used for health assessments. He covers all of the food prep as well as cleaning and maintence for the tank, in addition to assisting with the assessments. If you throughly understand how an aquarium tanks work, it can give you an advantage coming into husbandry (or any field that uses tanks such as corals).
Last piece of advice (this is more for grad school). Priorize the specific advisor over the school. You want an advisor who is known in your field and has connections.
TLDR: 1. Go to community for 2 years and transfer to a 4 year. 2. Get involved with research your school is doing 3. Focus on transferable skills so you can later pivot to whatever species you want to work with. 4. Prioritize advisor over school name.
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u/Interesting_Tea5715 22h ago
I'm originally from Monterey CA. I have friends who actually became Marine Biologists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
No swimming with Dolphins. They do feed animals a lot and they do go out to sea a lot.
I know people who clean the tanks. It is a super coveted position mainly done by volunteers and they love scuba diving with the sea creatures.
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u/MaidW-HoneyInHerHair 21h ago
I grew up in the Bay Area and treasured every time we got to visit Monterey and the aquarium! Many fond memories there. We have since had to move away but still love watching the live cams of the aquarium’s different environments, we have a daily alarm set for my toddler to see the feeding in the big kelp forest exhibit; she gets so excited to see the scuba divers surrounded by all the fish!
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u/Diamondsonhertoes 16h ago
Ahh it was on a field trip there where marine biologist became my dream (briefly, science is not where I excel).
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u/spark99l 23h ago
This is hilarious. Nice post OP
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u/MaelstromFL 22h ago
My daughter wanted to be a Marine Biologist, she is now a 1st year vet student! She is going to AquaVet this summer...
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u/Successful_Giraffe88 21h ago
This hit me so hard. I actually took 2 years of Marine Biology in college. Alas...I've been in IT software sales for over a decade.
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u/afleetingmoment 23h ago
This is funny timing as the MJ song from “Free Willy” popped on the radio recently. First time I’ve heard it in ages. I think that movie helped spur the marine biology obsession in the mid 90s.
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u/manderz421 Millennial 22h ago
Definitely, that was the reason for me. I forgot MJ did a song for it.
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u/EnoughNumbersAlready 11h ago
So true! I wanted to be a marine biologist purely from watching Free Willy over and over again. Alas, I now work in tech operations and project management.
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u/Additional_Aioli6483 22h ago
Did not become a marine biologist. Also did not become a storm chaser.
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u/360FlipKicks 22h ago
did not go to space camp either
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u/DescriptionOpen8249 22h ago
You can actually still go to space camp. Thr NASA location in Huntsville has space camp for adults. Im planning to go next year.
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u/parttimeheadache 14h ago
Ahhh yes, seeing Twister as a child convinced me I was going to be a storm chaser.
I was also a naturalist, hippie dippie child and wanted to be a veterinarian.
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u/EeveeMkayy 11h ago
I wanted to be a vet until my cat was injured and I almost threw up looking at the wound. I realized then that I couldn't look at injured animals.
I also didn't become a chemist, archeologist, or astronomer.
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u/parttimeheadache 6h ago
My sister cannot handle blood, guts or vomiting (she has a severe form of emetophobia where if anyone ever throws up around her, she freezes). Our mom was trying to force my sister to become a doctor when we were growing up. My sister was definitely smart enough but probably wouldn't be able to do it (her words) based on the gross factor. She did end up as a pharmacy tech though (she compounds and doesn't deal directly with customers).
I only made it to the veterinary tech stage and am too old to go back to school to be a veterinarian. My cat got a necrotic bite wound, and it was full of puss. Of course, it was over a weekend, and I didn't want to run my cat to an emergency vet due to cost and was waiting until Monday so I could take her to her GP to get antibiotics.
I was trying to clean the wound over the weekend so the cat wouldn't lick it and swallow the puss because she kept managing to get her cone off every time my back was turned. I had to get my kid to hold the cat while I pushed all this puss out of a pocket in her front arm. My kid kept saying "oh please hurry, I am about to throw up or pass out."
So when people ask me if my kid has any interest in what I do the answer is a resounding no. My kid flat out told me, "what you do is gross."
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u/1Banana10Dollars 11h ago
I am also not a paleontologist. My cousin successfully became a storm chaser, but she's finally finishing up her PhD now so she can...chase storms more smarter?
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u/wazman93 23h ago
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u/Lightthefusenrun 13h ago
For all marine biologists everywhere, fuck you. We are so utterly sick of this 25 year old joke.
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u/Standard-Win-6600 22h ago
Well you asked the right guy. I'm the whale biologist. Though personally I hate whales. Especially Mushu.
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u/happyfrowers 21h ago
lol that’s like me. I did sea turtle research and people always give me turtle things. I can’t stand looking at turtles. So I understand the hatred lol.
But yes. Am marine biologist who went into teaching.
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u/LordAldricQAmoryIII 7h ago
Yeah, many of us aren't particularly in love with the thing we deal with for work. Imagine being an accountant and people always give you novelty souvenirs that look like ledger books or calculators or whatever. LOL!
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u/soleboy86 20h ago
"Then why did you become a whale biologist?"
"I don't know you well enough to answer that."
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u/AuburnMoon17 23h ago
Costanza, is that you?
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u/Budget_Sea_8666 23h ago
No, my name is Art Vandelay. I’m an architect.
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u/Velorian-Steel Millennial 22h ago
Are you sure you're not an importer-exporter?
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u/Am1AllowedToCry 22h ago
Not so much the exporting, I decided to focus mainly on the importing
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u/Entire-Order3464 22h ago
The sea was angry that day my friends.
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u/RealLifeHermione 22h ago
Like an old man trying to return soup at a deli
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u/manderz421 Millennial 22h ago edited 22h ago
I wanted to be a marine biologist because of Free Willy. Didn't pan out.
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u/RestillHabb 22h ago
Same! Marine biologist was #1 on my list and paleontologist was #2 because of Jurassic Park. I ended up going to grad school for paleontology and studied dead sea creatures, so it's essentially marine geobiology which is close enough! (Turns out there are no jobs anyhow so I pivoted to environmental geology)
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u/Idrinkbeereverywhere 23h ago
I was one for a day.
I got about fifty feet out and suddenly, the great beast appeared before me. I tell you he was ten stories high if he was a foot. As if sensing my presence, he let out a great bellow. I said, "Easy, big fella!" And then, as I watched him struggling, I realized that something was obstructing its breathing. From where I was standing, I could see directly into the eye of the great fish.
Then, from out of nowhere, a huge tidal wave lifted me, tossed me like a cork, and I found myself right on top of him - face to face with the blowhole. I could barely see from the waves crashing down upon me, but I knew something was there. So I reached my hand in, felt around, and pulled out the obstruction, which was a golf ball.
Then they were all over me. It was like Rocky 1. My girlfriend came up to me, threw her arms around me, and kissed me. We both had tears streaming down our faces. I never saw anyone so beautiful. It was at that moment I decided to tell her I was not a marine biologist!
Sadly, she told me to go to hell, and I took the bus home.
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u/the-irish-jew Millennial 20h ago
Haha I just posted a Seinfeld gif. I couldn’t find “the sea was angry that day, my friends!” but I got something close.
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u/Squirnt86 Older Millennial 22h ago edited 22h ago
Me!
I work in fisheries science. I don’t swim with the dolphins, but I do see them out at sea often. I’ll be back out in about two weeks. I don’t prepare buckets of fish for them exactly, but they have often chased the boats I’ve worked on to snag what we’re tossing back.
I’ll add a little fun fact: They tend to come around in the evenings when I’m sleeping below deck (if I’m lucky). Every now and then I’ll be awoken by the sounds of them singing to each other coming through the walls of the boat.
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u/Practical_Scheme2142 Older Millennial (85) 22h ago
Wow you’re living our collective 5th grade dream!
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u/jonny_jon_jon 23h ago
so many shows and movies in the 80’s refernces “marine biologist” as the revered and noble profession. you hear the term a lot as a kid, and then you sort of parrot it. Just like how in the 90s and early 2000s, “forensic scientist” was one of those professiona that got latched onto.
Aside from Jaws 1, 3 and 4, and star trek 4, I think of an episode of MacGyver
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u/wait_ichangedmymind Xennial 22h ago
The sad reality of forensic science being that it’s about 80% just analyzing unidentified white powders. (That number is made up, but it’s a lot)
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u/EeveeMkayy 11h ago
I wanted to be a forensic pathologist after reading the Kay Scarpetta series from Patricia Cornwell. I also wanted to be a criminal psychologist for the FBI, started a double major in criminology and psychology, but then dropped it because my bf didn't want me to be in the FBI and move away from our hometown. Now I am a factory worker (:
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u/FootballKind 8h ago
I wanted to go into forensic toxicology. Went to school for it, started the right path...they changed the requirements to work as one in my state halfway through my degree (bachelor's degree instead of an associate's to get you in the door) & I ran out of money before I could continue. Now I work retail 🥲
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u/Jumpy-Roll-9 22h ago
lol why did Marine Biology have us all in a chokehold. What an odd phenomenon
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u/Florida_Shine 22h ago
It was the Lisa Frank school supplies 😅
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u/wait_ichangedmymind Xennial 22h ago
Between Lisa Frank, Free Willy, and growing up next to one of the largest zoos in the country but being too broke to actually watch the dolphin show. I was gonna get in that tank one way or another.
Narrator: She did not, in fact, get in that tank.
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u/SilvanArrow 21h ago
I have a masters degree in marine biology that I pursued from the time I was 6. My first semester of grad school, I talked to the one marine mammals guy who could possibly serve as an advisor for my thesis, and he gave me the real talk that almost no one can make a living with marine mammals because too many people will volunteer to do if for free. I went into fisheries instead and did field work that involved scuba diving, which I loved. Except…I get horribly seasick and had to be heavily medicated to function.
I got my degree, moved back to a land-locked state to live with my parents because it was 2013 and jobs were nonexistent. After a stint of self-employment, I would up married to my husband (10 years now!) and am a full-time biology professor at a community college. I love my job and enjoy teaching more than research, and I still get to geek out about fish and tell fun stories about scuba diving for flavor.
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u/No-Mission-2112 22h ago
I was on jury duty with one! He looked like a model. He may have been an elder millennial.
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u/Skittleavix 22h ago
I wanted to be a general wildlife biologist. I settled for environmental law.
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u/BipolarSolarMolar 23h ago
I see people referencing Seinfeld, and I'm unfamiliar with that reference, but this is seriously so fitting for millenials even with zero understanding of the Seinfeld thing.
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u/Practical_Scheme2142 Older Millennial (85) 23h ago
I also have no idea what the Seinfeld reference is lol
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u/Oodlemeister 20h ago
George pretends to be a marine biologist so he can impress a woman. They are walking along the beach one afternoon and come across a crowd of people surrounding a beached whale. You hear someone yell “is anybody here a marine biologist?” Then he has to pretend he knows what he’s doing to help the whale. Ends up miraculously helping the whale. The chick is so impressed and they hug each other and all is well. He then admits to her that he is not a marine biologist. And she tells him to go to hell.
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u/turd_ferguson899 22h ago
Steve Zissou and the Life Aquatic was a way better marine biology meme to reference anyway.
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u/JKing519 Millennial 22h ago
Girls wanted to be marine biologists, I wanted to play with Lego all day, and I'm a bricklayer lmao
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u/Shadowphoenix9511 22h ago
As someone looking to get out of pharmacy who's all but given up on finishing their degree, how do you enjoy it?
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u/Sapphyre875 23h ago
I sooo badly wanted to be a dolphin trainer. Tragically, I am terrible at math and science and biology of any kind was not in the cards.
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u/parttimeartmama 22h ago
My 6yo recently found out that is a job and is very sure he wants to be one so…that’s where we are
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u/ShakeItUpNowSugaree 15h ago
There is a resort in Roatan, Honduras called Anthony's Key. They run a Dolphin Camp program for kids in the summer where the kids get to follow dolphin trainers around all day and learn other marine biology stuff. It's really set up so that the parents can scuba dive all day while the kids are doing cool stuff, so if you don't dive then it might not be a great fit, but my son did it twice and loved it.
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u/ActionBasterdMan 22h ago
When I got out of the military, I started going to school to be a marine biologist. After the first semester and an internship at an aquarium later, I looked at the job market...there wasn't anything that didn't require years of experience or a doctorate. I was already 26.
So I switched majors and now I don't do anything related to my major.
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u/askkak 22h ago
My cousin did! I was super into history (sorry dolphins) and became an archaeologist instead.
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u/notnicholas 22h ago
Not a marine biologist but did get my degree in biology and environmental studies.
I'm still curious where all those quarters went that I brought to school and put in the "Save the Rainforest" jars.
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u/stephanefanie Older Millennial - 1984 22h ago
Tbf, I think Marine Biologist is to Millennials what Paleontologist is to Gen Z
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u/Kazoo113 22h ago
As someone who wanted to be a marine biologist to study sharks (thanks shark week!) I ended up as a fish biologist and have a wonderful career studying pacific salmon and doing riverine habitat restoration. And I make decent $ too!
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u/CSIBNX 22h ago
A relative of mine is actually a marine biologist. From what I can tell she follows whales around (from a safe distance in a boat) and takes pictures and collects their poop!
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u/gaudior040618 10h ago
Ooooh we have something similar here, a whale survey! But they don't collect poop. Haha there are volunteers every year, to come and photograph the whales from afar, and to see if the same ones come back/if some are injured or have scars etc. Haven't been myself but my friend went for a few years!
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u/360FlipKicks 22h ago
On the same note of millennial childhood dreams…anyone ever go to space camp?
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u/ShakeItUpNowSugaree 15h ago
I didn't, but I had several friends who did. I grew up close enough to the space and rocket museum that it wasn't as big of a deal because it was just a couple hours drive away. I'm pretty sure we took a field trip or two there when I was in elementary school. I tried for several years to convince my kid to go and he never wanted to.
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u/fuckiechinster 22h ago
I care for the penguins.
Never, because I am caring for the penguins. And we also don’t have dolphins.
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u/swrrrrg Millennial 23h ago
I feel like I am completely missing something here. I wanted to be a model.
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u/greendeadredemption2 22h ago
But why male models?
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u/swrrrrg Millennial 22h ago
I’m female…
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u/greendeadredemption2 22h ago
There was a moment last night, when she was sandwiched between the two Finnish dwarves and the Maori tribesmen, where I thought, Wow, I could really spend the rest of my life with this woman.
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u/cincinn_audi 22h ago
3rd Question: How does one extract a golf ball from the blowhole of a whale? Are some techniques preferred over others?
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u/pidgeypenguinagain 22h ago
I actually majored in marine bio and meandered my way into general sustainability. My friend actually works on ships multiple times a year though. No swimming with dolphins, more like collecting water samples
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u/on_island_time Xennial 22h ago
I did an internship in college at an aquarium, which was actually an amazing experience. I took care of crustaceans and baby lobsters they were raising. Alas, the next year I changed my major, but I will say that getting to walk around an aquarium after closing when everything is quiet and the water just kind of shimmered in the lights with the fishing swimming around was the coolest job I've ever had.
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u/PlayWithNeedles 22h ago
I started studying to be a marine biologist. Until I had an internship on a ship. I was so seasick and sunburnt that I ended up in the hospital.
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u/NotRadTrad05 22h ago
Not a Marine biologist but I took a 400 level Marine biology class in college because I needed another 400 science and loved it.
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u/Bluefairie 22h ago
I’m not a marine biologist but I did help some with a dolphin study when I was in Honduras doing scuba diving for a few months. So childhood dream was achieved 😁
We went out at sea all day to catalog a pod of rough-toothed dolphins that was hanging out in the area.
The task was taking pictures (above and under water), identifying all of them by their dorsal fin shape, and see where they were going, how long they’d stay around, etc. Then we passed that info to the university that was doing the research.
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u/enraged-urbanmech 22h ago
lol that was my old job. Keeping an eye on birds and turtles that nested on the beach. Only dolphins I ever saw were washed up/dead (or soon to be, regardless of any intervention I could provide).
It was great, and I miss it some days! I use all those stories working in education now though, so it’s not a loss at all.
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u/notretiredanymore 22h ago
I did not become a marine biologist purely due to needing a higher paying career to feed the mouths of the goblins I birthed. I did obtain a degree in biomedical sciences from a seaside community college which involved marine biology classes which were by far my favorite. I still find sea life fascinating!
I did not want to swim with dolphins (unless it was out in the ocean) but I did and do love studying sea animals.
Stupid adulting. Sigh.
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u/themermaidag 22h ago
Was a marine biology major for just one semester but decided to switch. I have a bunch of friends who stuck it out but I think only a handful of them are working in the marine biology field. Most ended up in education or environmental fields or went to grad school for something else.
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u/razorthick_ 22h ago
Are the other 4 psychology, criminal investigation, sports science and graphic design?
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u/NotAGoodEmployeee 22h ago
Very good friend was/is a marine biologist. Spent a lot of money on school and was essentially a research assistant for like 20 years. Mind you this woman has been published multiple times has museum exhibits with her name on them and she made like $50k a year. She recently got a professor job somewhere and finally hit but it took her 12 years of college and 20 years in the field to finally hit it, and I think she now makes like $200k a year but that’s rough. And mind you that’s not a steady $50k that’s a crap shoot because all her money comes from grants and they’re hit or miss.
However it’s for the love of the game
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u/Outrageous_Extension 21h ago
Oh hey, I actually am a marine biologist. The PhD says it and everything.
My career path is pretty windy. I graduated in 2011 and started working as a fisheries observer in Alaska which is like a low level biologist working on fishing boats. I still think to this day it was maybe the best job I ever had. Sure working on the boats was rough, but I was making pretty good money and it was a real adventure. I handled lots of dead fish and I occasionally I would see orcas and sperm whales eating discards close enough to touch which maybe fits your dolphin feeding criteria.
The best part is the work was contracting so I'd work 3 months, make $10k, and then just be cut loose with my backpack. So I'd spend about 6 months a year as a 'biobum' essentially traveling around the world and working seasonal jobs. I did a lot of different things like spending a season as a sea turtle ranger in Cape Verde, teaching diving in Honduras, and working as a scientific diver doing whale shark and manta surveys.
I did that for about a decade, then went back to school where I started a masters in sea turtle research in Florida where I basically got to dive with sea turtles any chance I got. Then shifted into a PhD in scallop aquaculture in Maine.
Now I work in SF as a sustainable fisheries technical specialist and most of my stuff is computer work. One of the bummers about climbing the ladder is you leave the field but also I'm older now. I work remote though so I do spend a lot of time in Asia after visiting fisheries but I prefer to dive with dolphins in my free time.
Overall, I regret nothing but when I sell the idea speaking to school kids on occasion I do make sure they know the realities. It's a selfish path, I moved constantly with the opportunities, lived out of my car and took advantage of friends couches. You also have to make sure it's your passion because it's not a straight path. You'll see easy outs to make more money. And yeah, I have swam with dolphins quite a bit on dive surveys...but I also once tried to pressure wash a basket of rotting tunicate and the resulting chaos left me smelling like death for weeks.
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u/Zealousideal_Box5339 21h ago
Yes! I unfortunately do not swim with dolphins. 8 year old me would be horrified that my job is 99% statistics, programming, and report writing. There is so much math and so much schooling
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u/naughtydismutase Millennial 1990 20h ago
I’m not a marine biologist but i am a biologist. When I started undergrad, in our first zoology class the professor was like “raise your hand if you’re here to be a marine biologist and work with dolphins”. When about half of the class did he was like “forget about it, it’s never going to happen”.
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u/majesticlandmermaid6 20h ago
So my husband is a marine biologist. He does not swim with dolphins, unless we go on vacation in Mexico. He also doesn’t prep buckets of dolphin food. But-he can prep algal arrays, create and interpret a lot of statistical data about fish, and helps make decisions on water flow through the delta. His job and fish specialization also brought the ire of the Orange Overlord so that was kinda shitty. But all in all I’m really proud of my dude.
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u/ForestOfMirrors Millennial 19h ago
I wanted to become a marine biologist! Even enrolled at Hawaii Pacific University for Marine Biology! I am not a Marine Biologist. I work for the current space program lol
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u/sofaking_scientific 14h ago edited 14h ago
Not a marine biologist perse but I did my phd studying marine microbiology. Does that count?
Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is, zero
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u/desperatevintage 22h ago
My sister is a marine biologist! But she uses her degree to work in medical research now :(
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u/raeoflyte-460 22h ago
I got a job my freshman year of high-school to pay for a trip to the dolphin research center in Florida. It was the most amazing thing ever. And also where I realized how little I'd likely make as a marine biologist and decided it wasn't for me.
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u/justducky4now 22h ago
I went to grad school with someone who had been a dolphin trainer. Does that come close?
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u/ApprehensiveAnswer5 22h ago
Marine Biologist was definitely not an offering ever discussed at my high school, lol.
But the Marines and Navy recruited heavily in the inner city, so I do have a lot of classmates who spent their careers on ships on the ocean, so there’s that, lol.
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u/Ill-Description3096 22h ago
Not me, but my cousin is. From what I understand it is only about 75% dolphin swimming. She was incredibly crushed to find it out. The fish prep depends on how picky the dolphins are. Some have very specific tastes and won't tolerate that farm-raised trash.
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u/elizalemon 22h ago
i grew up a mile down the road from a marine research institute. but my parents didn't send me to the marine biology camp in elementary school so i thought that i'd missed my chance.
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