What really do you think when you hear marine science?

Whenever I tell people that I am going to school for marine science their first reaction is always the same, maybe a slight variation, but always along the same lines:

ohhh you are a marine biologist?

Are you going to work with whales and dolphins??

I am sorry but why?

Why can't you ask me what I actually want to do with my degree before assuming that I want to work with Shamu or a dolphin at some amusement park or aquarium? I think that would be fun and all but that has never been my dream nor will it ever be my dream. Sidenote: If you want to work with Shamu it's actually better to double major marine science and psychology. They look more for people with degrees in psychology than anything else. I think that's the same for most science majors... my coastal management professor got a degree in geography (it's the best one to get for coastal management which is why I am going back for that). She travels a lot because she works closely with people in Washington D.C., the government officials down in the Gulf, as well as over in Italy. Whenever she told anybody that she was a geographer they automatically thought she just loved maps and that's the only thing that she worked with.

I am stealing bits and pieces of this information from the marine science page here at USC (South Carolina- NOT Southern Carlifornia bleh). "Marine science includes many area of study, all concerned with increasing our knowledge of marine systems. Marine scientists are working on current problems and future needs in the preservation, use, and development of the marine environment. As our concern increases for the protection and intelligent use of our natural resources, the importance of Marine Science as a discipline vital to these endeavors increases dramatically. A solid academic background in Marine Science will prepare the student for numerous career oppurtunities, including the following:

• Government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels employ Marine Scientists to regulate the use of marine resources, solve problems and conduct research
• Private industry jobs for Marine Science graduates in the fields of aquaculture, exploratory geology, satellite imagery, and computer ecological modeling, depending upon the extent of an individual's training. Private consulting firms hire Marine Science graduates to work on environmental impact projects
• Marine technology careers, i.e., related to the construction of buildings or transportation systems in marine or coastal areas, are available to Marine Science graduates
• Teaching and research positions in college and universities offer another area of career oppurunities
• The military (specifically the Navy), in conjunction with R.O.T.C. programs, offers careers for Marine Science majors. Many previous graduates are now serving in the Navy as pilots, oceanographers, and ships' officers as well as in other positions.
• The Peace Corps recruits Marine Science graduates to teach courses, such as aquaculture, in less developed nations.
• A number of Marine Science graduates have joined the NOAA Corps and are serving as commissioned Officers onboard the NOAA research vessels."

I know that when I came here for school I originally was pre-med going for a degree in biology. Well during my second semester I got assigned an advisor that I would be with the rest of the time here at USC. I was the first person to see him because I am so weird about that. I went in there and the first thing he told me was to sign up for another day and go home and plan out the next three years here at USC. Look at the master schedule and see when things are offered and go from there. I worked on that for days on end. Amber had to of gotten annoyed with me rambling on like a crazy person about how stupid it was when certain classes were offered (some are offered one semester in 2-4 years). I had the most ridiculous stack of papers that you would have ever thought. My advisor had also told me to start looking into a minor. At the time I was more than open to going to vet school so looked through and saw marine science. I have always loved the ocean and everything about it. It's so complex. I decided to talk MSCI101 and just see how it was and if I liked it I would tack that on as my minor after my first semester of sophomore year. I got into class and as cliche as it sounds things haven't been the same since. My whole year in school before I had gone to classes and I took them because well... I HAD to. I wasn't passionate about any of it. I took this course and I fell in love. I blame Claudia Benetiz-Nelson (look her up she's well known all through the Marine Science community). I went to class excited to learn something and it has been this way for the past three- going on three and a half years. Going out into the field you barely ever work with animals and you are always "disgusting" and dirty almost the whole entire time but what you get out of it is so much more than anybody could ever think. The majority of my time out in the field has been in the marshes. To most marshes are just smelly places, but if you knew half of what it did for us you would want more marshes to be around here (I will write about marshes next Wednesday).

Throughout my college career I have taken multiple courses in almost every discipline: a year of physics, two years of chemistry, 3 and a half of biology, a year of history, a year of geology and geography, a year and a half of political science, two years of math, english obviously as a gen ed, a year in psychology... I have seen all of this school and so much more. It has been shown that the Marine Science programs is one of the hardest programs because of how extensive it is, but it is also shown to produce some of the most well rounded students. I am by no means saying that I am any better than anybody else I just trying to show that it is not just a one faceted type of major. If you are marine biologist you still have to understand the physical, chemistry, geological, etc parts of why things are working how they are. It is all intertwined. I didn't know what I would want to do with it when I originally started marine science I just knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life. I have gone from being a professor, to maybe teaching oceanography in high schools, to a few other things. My heart is in conservation efforts of marine life. I took a coastal managment course to see if it is what I want to go into and it just cemented my thoughts of what I wanted to do even more so. When Laine and I move up to Charlottesville I will most likely be taking courses at UVA (if I get accepted of course) to get another degree in geography and then we hopefully I will get my masters in geography as well one day. Then, maybe one day a pHd as well, but that is still up in the air. I have taken public administration and public policy classes and I see how much I could help out the world doing this. I want my kids to be able to enjoy the things that I have been able to that all of us have screwed up in one fashion or another.

So back to my original point of this please do not automatically assume that everybody that goes to school for Marine Science is wanting to play with shamu. Most marine science majors (over 75%) go back to school for a graduate degree of some kind and do research for the rest of their life. We are all apart of a bigger picture of the working with the ocean and learning everything that we can. Marine Science is a relatively new subject of interest and with how vast it is, it is so hard to learn everything there is to know. We will always be learning something new. This affects us more than most people think.