Anyone out there ever work in a Marine Biology Lab?
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How did you get that word “Wirk” to stick, mine keeps autocorrecting lol
I used to. I did research on the immune system of oysters. (It's not what we would generally call an "immune" system, but that's close enough). I am now in environmental consulting, because you get paid a living wage. In marine biology many people are willing to get paid very little to work in a really cool field. Unlike many assume, marine biologists do not usually work with dolphins or spend their days scuba diving on coral reefs. Most people work in labs like I did. As you might imagine, in a research area like oysters there are not a lot of amazing stories. So, here is something I volunteered to do instead. I used to go on week long research cruises out to the gulf stream. We collected gamefish in traps to remove their ear bones (otoliths), which work just like rings in a tree to tell the age of a fish. You know how you see in the news information like only xyz percent of a threatened fish species are of breeding age, or the average age of swordfish being caught has gone way down, or how they decide to impose fishing limits. That's what this is used for. Here is the cool stuff IMO, juvenile fish live in sargassum seaweed floating on the surface. I spent my off time dip netting juvenile fish often too small to easily identify and take them home to grow out in my 80 gal tank. Cobia, grouper, flying fish, cool reef fish, etc. We would set them in a bucket on the deck and try to guess what different ones were. (Tough to tell in a bucket on a rolling deck). My favorite was a Short Bigeye. These fish live down to about 200 m. I caught it when it was smaller than your pinky nail and grew it up to about 6-8 inches. It died of, no surprise, a bad eye infection. We also set up a powerful floodlight to aim straight down into the water at night. You could see the fish food chain. Tiny fish picking on invisible stuff at the surface. Larger minnows down deeper shooting up to eat them, and so on going down until the level of gamefish like amberjack. It was amazing Jacques Cousteau stuff. Saw a massive manta ray jump out of the water near the ship once. Very cool. But the most amazing thing was this girl who had a real problem with sea sickness. She was so excited by her research that she would regularly go on these trips and spend a week ill and vomiting multiple times a day. Now that's dedication. Science nerds are nuts.
Short Bigeye juvenile and adult (not my pictures)
Short Bigeye juvenile and adult (not my pictures)
guylaga
Active Member
I also used to work in the Marine Biology field.
Actually went to University for Fisheries Management with the intention to be in the Law Enforcement and management if game fishes field.
Spent my summers working either outdoors monitoring sea turtle nesting behavior or in a lab doing DNA variance analysis on Tuna in the Gulf of Mexico.
After college I got a job as a contractor with the federal government working in their protected species branch (again Sea Turtles) where we would monitor offshore oil platform removal and help mitigate impact to Sea Turtles and Dolphins. That was right after the Deepwater Horizon incident so oil platform removal was a hot topic. I got sent to Louisiana every week for a few months and it was crazy with all of the hotels being occupied and so much traffic everywhere due to all of the workers involved in the oil spill clean up. I got to see first hand everything that was going on, and still remember seeing miles and miles of boom that had been deployed to protect the marshes in Louisiana.
After doing that for a year I moved over to the fisheries management branch and worked on fishing boats recording their catches and pulling otoliths from various game fish. I also would help release and tag any sea turtles that happened to be caught on accident. Most of my actual work was pretty mundane, but every now and then we would catch a massive Tiger or Mako shark or some huge Grouper.
The crazy stories I have would mostly come from dealing with the very colorful people I would meet working offshore or on the fishing boats.
Lets just say that when these guys are having to work super long hours everyday they may take some "supplements" to help combat fatigue. Then when its time to take a break certain herbs rolled in paper are frequently passed around!
Got to see lots of cool wildlife, Manta Rays, Whale Sharks, pods of spotted dolphins 100+ strong, massive Leatherback Sea turtles, feeding frenzy of Tuna feeding on sardines, could go on and on....
Actually went to University for Fisheries Management with the intention to be in the Law Enforcement and management if game fishes field.
Spent my summers working either outdoors monitoring sea turtle nesting behavior or in a lab doing DNA variance analysis on Tuna in the Gulf of Mexico.
After college I got a job as a contractor with the federal government working in their protected species branch (again Sea Turtles) where we would monitor offshore oil platform removal and help mitigate impact to Sea Turtles and Dolphins. That was right after the Deepwater Horizon incident so oil platform removal was a hot topic. I got sent to Louisiana every week for a few months and it was crazy with all of the hotels being occupied and so much traffic everywhere due to all of the workers involved in the oil spill clean up. I got to see first hand everything that was going on, and still remember seeing miles and miles of boom that had been deployed to protect the marshes in Louisiana.
After doing that for a year I moved over to the fisheries management branch and worked on fishing boats recording their catches and pulling otoliths from various game fish. I also would help release and tag any sea turtles that happened to be caught on accident. Most of my actual work was pretty mundane, but every now and then we would catch a massive Tiger or Mako shark or some huge Grouper.
The crazy stories I have would mostly come from dealing with the very colorful people I would meet working offshore or on the fishing boats.
Lets just say that when these guys are having to work super long hours everyday they may take some "supplements" to help combat fatigue. Then when its time to take a break certain herbs rolled in paper are frequently passed around!
Got to see lots of cool wildlife, Manta Rays, Whale Sharks, pods of spotted dolphins 100+ strong, massive Leatherback Sea turtles, feeding frenzy of Tuna feeding on sardines, could go on and on....
Oops, replied to the wrong comment. Guylaga, I am so jealous of the whale shark! The turtle talk reminds me that I have been bitten twice by different sea turtles. The only one that really hurt was one that I got in a small public aquarium I ran for a awhile. (running a tank with thousands of gallons and tons of fish is so much easier than a reef tank). I had an injured loggerhead that was a permanent resident. It ate live blue crabs. It's amazing to see them crush a large crab in one bite. One day I put my hand in the tank without thinking. I never did that again.
The aquarium has it's own good stories. Kids that fell face first into the touch tank, the time my boss tried to show off to his friends by feeding a huge puffer fish by hand and lifted his hand out of the tank with what looked like a volleyball latched on to it (I told him not to do it!), etc.
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guylaga
Active Member
I was lucky enough to never get bit by a sea turtle! But I always made it a priority to keep my figures away from their mouths. They are such cool creatures, I think the Finding Nemo people really hit the nail on the head with Crush being an old surfer dude type.
Were you down
Were you down south doing all that rescuing a couple of weeks ago?
guylaga
Active Member
No I was not but I have a friend however that was doing that. He works at a rehabilitation clinic for Sea Turtles down in Galveston.
I ended up getting out of the Marine Bio field in 2014, like you mentioned the pay isnt that great.
I was fine with the pay when single and renting a house with friends from college, but when you get married / buy a house / start having kids (and get into reefing lol) the pay checks start to matter more.
I was lucky enough that some of the things I got to experience offshore translated to the Maritime/Shipping Industry and I still volunteer with some local organizations to get that fix in.
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