What is Marine Biology
Marine Biology is a science that studies marine life. There are lots of species that live in the ocean and even more species that we do not know of their existence. Marine life is vital because it covers a significant part of our world’s nature. This science is a learning field, and many biologists work with academies and other organizations.
Marine Biologists
The first person to talk about marine life was Aristotle. He made many observations of life in the ocean that would be important for many future discoveries. Marine biologists not only study life in the ocean but also the ocean itself. They explore all types of sea creatures and things such as processes, environmental conditions, diseases caused by humans, etc. In fact, they study these organisms that live in the sea, how they behave and how we affect them with our activities.
As we can imagine, marine biologists spend most of the time working outdoors. They can work for many organizations such as aquariums, zoos, and museums. Others work for the state or at private laboratories. Jobs are limited, and there is too much competition. Computer skills and math knowledge will be critical to a job in the market.
Degree
Every marine biologist needs to complete a Marine Biology Major which ensures specialized knowledge and experience in the ocean and its biological systems. Ecological principles and environmental monitoring are other two crucial topics marine biologists need to understand.
There are many subjects, but these are the most common ones:
- Analytical Chemistry
- Ecology
- Coastal landforms
- Changing Environments
- Experimentation
- Marine Botany
- Ecosystems
You can find a job in both public and private sectors as a Marine Biology graduate such as fisheries, research, aquariums, universities and environmental assessment.
Environmental issues
Marine biologists may study how we affect the ocean with our daily activities and may search for ways to solve it. For example, oil and chemical spills have several effects on the ocean life. Once they found a way of solving this problem, they present their research at scientist conferences. For example, a group of marine biologists developed a strategy to help people adapt to climate changes due to coral reefs are in trouble.
Another group of marine biologists revealed key information about East Pacific green sea turtle. They used modern technologies that enable them to extract life history information from bones.
But there are many environmental issues related to the ocean that is mainly caused by humans. For example, overfishing causes an enormous impact on the ocean because it drains life from water and it not only affects fishes but it also affects species that eat fishes. Many marine animals are starving because we are taking their food out of the sea.
We also harm ourselves because we do not take care of the food that we eat later. Mercury pollution is predicted to rise, and it impacts directly on the ocean. But we also are affected because we eat fishes.
There are many ways marine biologists can help the world. We must understand that the ocean is a big life resource for our world and many species live in there. And there are even more species that we do not know that exist. We need to understand how important is to take care of the sea and look at the bigger picture.