*Taken at GA - Ocean Park Hong Kong
So what it's like to be working as a marine biologist? what do they actually do? Often people question me about what is it like working as a Marine Biologist assistant or do I take care dolphins, sharks? Hmmm, That does not make any sense but I'm here to tell you the truth behind.
It all starts with love, Love indeed. You must have a kind heart, passionate towards ALL different kinds of species - Many people would think that 'Oh we're called marine biologists so we only conserve and study marine/aquatic organisms'. This is absolutely a wrong thought which I would like to take this opportunity and tell the world that we don't just sit in labs and we care about every animal but the only differences are that our focus is mainly on aquatic organisms. and we do split into two different groups - It's either Marine Ecology and Marine Biology, there are more branches such as Marine Mammal, Marine Birds etc.
First thing first; Why did I choose to become a Marine Biologist rather than becoming a radiographer? (My family were very upset about this)
Humans are selfish, everyone wants to get rich, have a decent house to live in etc. but not for me. a life of 9 -5 isn't for me.
I feel like fullfillng our needs by damaging the ocean isn't a nice thing to do or to appreciate,
Anyways, where were we?! Oh! yes! explaining the differences between Marine Ecology and Marine Biology.
MARINE BIOLOGY VS MARINE ECOLOGY- :)
Marine biology is the study of life in the oceans. well, marine biology involves thoughts of dolphins, turtles, and maybe even some pretty coral-reef fish from Finding Nemo! However, marine biology is a whole lot more than that, investigating all life in the ocean, from the plankton (very small) to the blue whales (very big). we tend to focus on specific species (chosen species) and answer questions like: 'How do dolphins use echolocation?' 'How do sharks sense the environment?'”. All in all, some pretty cool stuff in my opinion! that's what attracted me to do a degree in Marine Biology, the marine life is so complicated that 95% of the ocean has yet been discovered. But at the opposite, Marine Ecology is also very important, especially to our ecosystem, because as marine ecologists we link what we know about the biology of a given species with other plants/animals and the environment as well. This allows questions to be explored like:”Why do ecosystems that are so depleted in nutrients (like the Great Barrier Reef) have such high biodiversity and productivity?”, “What will happen to the local seagrass and fish population if we build a new jetty here?”, and “How does the presence of keystone predators (like sharks) affect not only turtle and dugong numbers but the type of plants we see on the seafloor?”. Nature is extremely complex, therefore it does take centuries to study.
If we were splitting hairs, ecology is technically a form of biology, but I felt the need to write this post given how passionately I see some researchers stating that they are in one camp or another. Most importantly, we need to have marine biologists and ecologists to help us understand marine organisms and how they interact with the environment and each other. But as an ecologist (albeit a biased one!) what gets me excited isn’t just finding out how the amazing plants and animals we find in the ocean work, but how they interact with each other and their environment, explaining why we see certain species in some places and not others!
So both field's are unique but similar at the same time.
Just explore and find out your interests :)
