r/marinebiology

(UK based but open to international opinions too)

The uni I am planning to go to to study offers the HSE, but I have some health issues and the cost is prohibitive where I am, not to mention I live inland with no ability to do the practice dives required.

Ignoring issues like work experience and job shortages, can I reasonably get a job where I work on a boat without having that qualification? Can I get it later on?

I run an aquarium job board and tracked every posting that came through in 2025 and put together a report on the data. Some things that stood out:

• Aquarist/Animal Keeper roles made up 25% of all postings, with an average hourly rate of $20.54
• 59% of postings included salary information
• Job postings spanned 30+ states

Full report is here if interested: https://aquariumshiring.com/reports/2025-aquarium-jobs-report

I also published a zoo version covering 1,106 postings if anyone is interested in that side too: https://zooshiring.com/reports/2025-zoo-jobs-report

Hope this is useful for anyone planning their next move in the field.

I know there are some genera of fish and other organism that can survive between fresh and salt water like salmon and tiger sharks \[i remember hearing something about tiger sharks swimming up rivers for short periods of time\]. But im more talking about like animals that show specific adaptations to one type of water or environment and cannot really switch.

For context: I am trying to design a god of water bodies for a dnd world. I was thinking about having her split between freshwater and salt water with some noticeable differences like size of apperance, temperment, clothing, anotomy etc. But I want to be able to base it off of animals that live in such conditions as if she has adapted and been changed by the body of water she is associated with when you meet her.

Do any of you know anything that could fit or any differences between the two i could add?

A few months ago i posted here asking whether Fahlo was legit. After all your positive responses i finally pulled the trigger (thank you guys! You were so helful)

So i got the sea turtle one. The bracelet is pretty nice. The bracelet is pretty nice with natural stone beads. Been wearing it daily and it's held up fine. Not the reason to buy it but not an afterthought either. My turtle is Esmeralda.shes been moving between costa Rica and Cuba and the app shows her path. The updates from the conservancy are where it gets interesting though. One recent note mentioned their team in Costa Rica encountered a green turtle that was first tagged in 1991 and has returned to nest 15 times where she may have laid over 7,000 eggs!!

I have no regrets on the Fahlo animal tracking bracelet so far. Tho, it makes me now wonder how different the tracking data looks across animals. A sea turtle moving coastal vs an elephant across the savanna seems like it'd be a pretty different experience! Anyone tracking another marine or land animal?

I have always been incredibly interested in marine life but I am deathly afraid of open water. It is a real phobia that I have and it makes me freeze up in shock everytime I see a big fish within open water. For example Orcas or sharks even though it is sharks, orcas and whales that I find the most interesting. Is it a wise idea to commit with this phobia I have? Thankful for advice and honesty.

I tried to post this earlier but it was removed because the question wasn’t specific, so I’m explicitly asking if bioluminescence can actually look the way I am describing.

Last night in my hometown of Los Osos, CA (the inside of Morro Bay) during an extremely high tide, I decided to take a dip in the bay late at night. The bay isn’t always advisable to swim, but I do it pretty frequently. There was a lot of fish/marine activity I could hear in the form of splashes. There was also a lot of dead seaweed, and again, very high tide. I was amazed to realize it was glowing with bioluminescence!!! Full disclosure, I had ingested psychedelic mushrooms that evening, but I don’t think that was causing what I was seeing.

I’ve seen bioluminescence before and understand roughly what is going on. My main curiosity is regarding the TYPE of glow, and when I described this to friends they wrote it off as a hallucination.

The glow was super spotty. Almost like mirror ball reflections. And unlike classic red tide conditions I’ve seen, violent agitation didn’t cause it to glow. A gentle swoosh yielded the best effect. It also didn’t appear to be fully abundant in all the water, but mostly on the surface in the ‘froth’ of all the dead seaweed stuffs. The coolest part was slowly walking and the wake my body made was filled with all these glowy dots. It reminded me of art by one of my favorite artists ever, Yayoi Kusama.

Is this type of bioluminescent glow a real thing, or am I, as friends have told me, just trippin. Thank you, and isn’t the ocean the best?!?