Marine Biology degree course?

I'm wanting to increase my understanding of the marine environment and so considering a Marine Biology (or similar) degree as a way of doing this. I think this would improve my diving enjoyment and help me find more subjects to photograph.

The problem is that I work full time (UK based) and can only do a distance learning course, preferably an on line one. 3 hours of googling today has been pretty useless (unless I want a "degree" in 1 week for $199 ). Does anyone out there know of a suitable course??

Thanks

As a marine biology student, I have never heard of such a thing(on-line marine bio degree).

Even if you do find such a course, I don't think you would get out of it what you are hoping to.

A friend of mine is doing a portion of her marine bio course through the Open Uni. while she lives in Amsterdam. The practical and research portion of the course which is more than half the full programme will be completed in Australia.

Even if you do find such a course, I don't think you would get out of it what you are hoping to.

I'm very interested in that comment especially from someone who is already a Marine Biology student. Could you expand on your thoughts further?

I'm wanting to increase my knowledge and understanding of the marine environment and the full time courses (in the UK) are composed of modules I think I would find interesting such as basic biology, geology and oceanography and then progressively more specialised modules (some more relevant than others to diving and UW photography) in later years such as fisheries or marine mammals etc, etc. Most of the best natural history photographers seem to be very knowledgeable about their subjects habitat, behaviour and interaction with other species. This knowledge can be experiential or academic (ie learnt/taught) and I would guess usually a combination of the two things.

In my (very) limited experience the only DM with a marine biology degree I ever dived with was much better at finding critters and placing them into context of the overall reef environment than the DMs without.

Acroporas

Very impressive homepage galleries btw

I know that my Oceanographic Center (Nova Southeastern University) has a lot of online classes and distance learning opportunities. Check out -

http://www.nova.edu/ocean/ and follow the link for distance education. This may be somewhat valuable but you will end up paying money to do internet searches and literature review whioch you can honestly do for free if you want. My suggestion is that you will always get a ton more learning out of a hands on experience so you may want to save your money and look into internship opportunities - get out in the field under a trained biologist and experience the science - you will find it much more rewarding than doing book-report type reviews with online classes. Good luck!

- MP

Even if you do find such a course, I don't think you would get out of it what you are hoping to.

 

I'm very interested in that comment especially from someone who is already a Marine Biology student.  Could you expand on your thoughts further?

 

I'm wanting to increase my knowledge and understanding of the marine environment and the full time courses (in the UK) are composed of modules I think I would find interesting such as basic biology, geology and oceanography and then progressively more specialized modules (some more relevant than others to diving and UW photography) in later years such as fisheries or marine mammals etc, etc.  Most of the best natural history photographers seem to be very knowledgeable about their subjects habitat, behavior and interaction with other species.  This knowledge can be experiential or academic (ie learnt/taught) and I would guess usually a combination of the two things. 

 

In my (very) limited experience the only DM with a marine biology degree I ever dived with was much better at finding critters and placing them into context  of the overall reef environment than the DMs without.

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I would find interesting such as basic biology, geology and oceanography

Yes, you can get this out of a marine biology courses. And yes it can be interesting. But very little of this will be of any practical value. You may learn why seaweed clumps together in the ocean, but that wont help you find that seaweed clump.

I would assume that you are wanting to learn about the behavior/biology/habitat of specific animals. This is what is useful to diver/photographer but is not something you can get out of a degree in marine biology.

Practical knowledge about specific animals you can only get from first hand experience.

Our beloved Doc Mustard may be a rare exception but most experienced dive masters know much more about the habitat and behaviors of fish in the wild than most PHD's.

The best way to gain practical knowledge about the behavior of animals is to spend time observing them in the wild.

If you cant take a year off and go diving every day, bring the ocean home. Get an aquarium and stock it with fish you are interested in. Make it a goal to identify everything in your aquarium. Then read literature about what you have. And most importantly spend a lot of time observing the animals in your aquarium. Spend the time you would spend on a degree observing your aquarium and you will learn much more practical info than you could taking classes.

The Bermuda Biological Station for Research and other field stations have courses taught by PhD's that both spend a lot of time in the water AND have the scientific rigor, tools and training to draw meaningful conclusions. These are courses though, not degrees and you have to be there.

I had a really interesting chat with a divemaster the other day, she has worked all around the world but was complaining that while she could find fish for clients, she really didn’t understand most of what she sees. LOL. Meanwhile I was thinking the grass was greener on her side of the fence since I struggle to get away form my damned desk and get into the water 2-3 times a week. We tagged 23 squid today though, it was a good day!

In any case, I’d suggest a good book on oceanography, another on marine biology, and some hands on field courses if you want to do this to increase your knowledge. If you really want a true science perspective, you will need to learn things like statistics, etc. Most people don’t :-P

James

Thanks all for your replies, its always productive on here.

I have come to the conclusion that what I want (an online theory course with a few field trips over 3 years say) doesnt exist - yet. I'd very much like a heavily science based course, biostats dont worry me particularly as I'm doing a PhD in cancer molecular biology, I can assure everyone fish (in fact anything multicellular!) are a sight more rewarding to watch and count than tissue cultures!

It looks like its more casual reading and perhaps the odd holiday helping out at a marine station. Perhaps I'll revist this topic in a years time or so and see if anythings changed.

Cheers

Marine biology is a broad topic. I agree with Mr. Heaton that you need to probably narrow what you want to learn because things like oceanography and marine biology are two totally different subjects but both offer excellent insight to the ocean environment. There's a lot of math involved as well....it's not all about fish and inverts specifically.....thus it gets very broad when you say marine biology. Maybe you want to take a class on invertebrate zoology, as an example.

Joe

Joe,

I hadn't considered it that deeply yet. In the UK at least undergrad Marinebiology courses tend to have a very broad based modular approach for at least the first year covering the basics of oceanography, climatology, biology, ecology etc. The more specialist options seem to appear in years 2 and 3; such as fisheries, marine mammals, invertebrates study etc when students might have developed an interest in one particular area.

Casual reading at least is enjoyable, sitting down in the evening with a good Sauvignon blanc and NO pressure ................but sometimes I find that I just skim or ignore things which if I had to do a course on I wouldn't, or perhaps a skilled lecturer could bring to life.

Anyway casual learning it is for the moment!

Hi Peter

I am just completing a MAppSc in Marine Biology and Natural Resource Managemnet at James Cook Uiversity in Townsville Queensland. The course is full time for 18 months and I would highly recommend it as it provides lots of options to specialise.

I also work for a not for profit organisation: ReefCheck Australia Thought I'd chime in as this or a similar organisation might give you a few other avenues that you could consider rather than full time study. Reef Check is a coral reef monitoring organisation that trains community volunteer divers (minimum qual: PADI rescue and 50+ dives) to collect data on reef health. We run video, substrate, invertebrate and fish surveys as part of our monitoring programs in Australia. The data is being intergrated into an online spational database for use by a wide variety of marine science professionals and other interested parties.

The training programs give a good practical insight into marine organism identification in coral reef systems. We also monitor impacts such as coral bleaching and reef damage. The courses are inherently very practical and designed to train any enthusiastic competent diver to understand reef ecology processes and use these skills to participate in coral conservation research.

Obviously Aussie is a long way from the UK! But the Reef Check network covers 80 countries around the world ReefCheck and volunteers who have completed the training program can contact other countries in the network with the potential of participating in their monitoring programs. We run a number of courses per year that are full time running over 2-3 weeks depending on the weather!

So as not to seem biased it is worth noting that there are a number of other organisations with reef conservation goals such as Coral Cay. Coral Cay is based in hte UK and hence might suit you better.

Obviously these are both focused upon coral reefs which are only one (albeit very important) of the ecosystems that are covered in a marine biology degree. It is worth noting that the subject is very broad and hence as many other participants in this thread have mentioned getting out there in the water is the best way of working out whether you want to give up your day job! Personally after 10 years working for a corporate I can highly recommend it!

It is also worth noting that you can become a volunteer at several of the marine research stations on the GBR: Heron Island, Lizard Island, Orphues Island etc

I hope this provides a little more seafood for thought.

Seems to me octopulse is on the right track. I generally find getting involved in some project is likely to keep me honest and productive. Perhaps you want to come up with your own project though.

Another thought I had was contacting a professor at a university and prehaps trying to set up a new curriculum. Perhaps some kind of 2 year degree or some sort of certificate program to offer more general ocean studies degrees.

Me, I'd try to work with a program like octopulse suggests. I too like a little pressure to force me to be productive, but you don't want it to ruin your fun either.