For Teachers and Students | NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Laboratory
Careers and Jobs

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for teachers and students : careers and jobs

Careers in Oceanography & Marine Biology

• Links to information about careers in marine biology and oceanography.

• Oceanographers apply basic sciences to studies of the sea, its contents and the surrounding environment. They are chemists, physicists, biologists and geologists who bring their special skills to ocean studies. They collaborate with one another and with engineers and social scientists on complex, challenging issues as they expand our knowledge of the ocean. They work in laboratories ashore, on ships, in submersibles and from underwater facilities like Aquarius.

• Possible career areas include:
  • Biological oceanographers, marine biologists and fisheries scientists
  • Chemical oceanographers and marine geochemists
  • Geological oceanographers and geophysicists
  • Physical oceanographers
  • Marine and ocean engineers
  • Marine policy experts
• Jobs are found in research and development, resource management, education and training, regulation enforcement, environmental monitoring and protection and advisory services. Approximately 50 percent of jobs are with federal or state governments, 40 percent are in education and the remainder are in private industries and nonprofit organizations.
• If you’re thinking about a career in oceanography or marine biology, you should enroll in as many chemistry, earth science, biology, physics, computer science and mathematics classes as possible, both in high school and college. Educational requirements vary from a high school education to college undergraduate and graduate degrees.
• As more and more of the United States population migrates to coastal areas, the importance of understanding and managing coastal waters increases. As a result, over the next 20 years there will be many opportunities for employment ranging from research to environmental protection activities.

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