r/oceanography

Hello everyone! I am a 25 yo immigrant in Australia right now, and after a long and disapointing course in social media marketing which I found out not to be for me, I have decided to switch the trajectory of my life entirely. When I think about what I want to do with my life, I think about being in contact with nature, mostly in isolated places. I often times imagine myself in the middle of the ocean far away from any land, or in forests doing work there. In short, the more isolated and far from cities the work is, the more it seems to attract me. Moving from place to place wouldn't bother me too much since I've been doing that for a good chunk of my twenties anyways (and I love travelling!).

However, a quick reality check might be necessary, because I understand that no matter the career I try to pursue, you can't just work doing what you like all the time. From what I've searched online, not all environmental science jobs involve field work, and in the ones that do you don't do it all the time. Despite that, the field of environmetal/marine science attracts me a lot. My main worry is studying for it, because I've been away from any school subject for a long time, and I wasn't the best student in my school days either.

My favorite subjects in school were biology and geography, but that is not to say that I was good in them. Truth is, I was a terrible student, but not because I was dumb, I just didn't want to study at all. I never developed the habit of studying in my life, and my grades in high school were terrible because of that. Math, physics and chemestry were a nightmare, math being the one I liked most among those. But again, I just didn't like studying any of them, so I chose to play videogames instead. But now as an adult, I see myself wanting to pursue these careers but I'm scared that I wouldn't be able to keep up.

To top it all off there is the age problem. I understand most would say that 25 is still young, but if I take 5 years of my life just to study environmental science I would finish at 30 and be competing with fresh 24 year olds. Somehow thinking about that scares me, and I don't want to make the wrong decision at this point in my life, I just don't have the time to spare. I want to understand how the field of environmental/marine science is first before making the final decision. How is the market for it right now? Would an Australian degree allow me to travel to other places to work in the field? How difficult is it to sustain yourself with this career, and what paths can I take?

My plan is to study 1,5 years to get a diploma of conservation and ecosystem management, and then from there figure out if I really want to pursue this career. Moving to a bachelors in either environmental science or marine science which would take me 3 years to complete. I appreciate in advance for the replies, thank you!

Hi everybody!

I'm a first-year PhD student working in Arctic micropaleontology, and I've been working with foraminifera since 2019. One thing I'd really like to do during my PhD is join a research cruise.

I was wondering if there's some kind of database where research cruises are listed, or where you can see which research vessels have received funding or have upcoming expeditions. How do people usually find opportunities to join a cruise? Is there an application process, or is it mostly through collaborations and networking?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I did try asking my supervisor, but unfortunately he isn't very responsive, so I thought I'd ask here instead.

Thanks in advance! :)

If someone built a real "Google Maps for the ocean," what would your dream version include?Marine life, wrecks, reefs, water conditions, all of it.

What is missing in how the ocean gets shown to people now?

Also curious who's answering: are you a diver, boater, angler, into marine science, or just someone who finds the ocean interesting?

Do you use any related apps for this now?

Doing a bit of research on this, would love to hear the details, thanks!

I'm looking for an experienced engineer or engineering team to design and develop an autonomous ocean surface vehicle (USV) similar to Saildrone.

The platform will be used for ocean monitoring and carbon dioxide research, with a target deployment of up to six months. It should operate autonomously, use renewable energy (wind and/or solar), support satellite communications, and integrate environmental sensors.

This is a funded, professional project—not a hobby build.

If you have experience with USVs, marine robotics, autonomous systems, or know someone who does, I'd appreciate any recommendations. Please comment or send me a DM.

Thanks!

Hello! I'm writing a story about large bodies of water rising off of the ground and into the air - this leads to exploration of deep places on Earth that we previously couldn't get to and I'm wondering if any experts here can speak to what would be some hypothetical effects of water being removed from the equation in some of the deepest places on our planet?

Do underwater hot springs become volcanoes?
Do structures that were otherwise being held together by pressure crumble?
What are some things that immediately come to mind that would help you to be immersed in a fictional world where such a thing had happened?

Thank you for your expertise and for entertaining this thought experiment!

So if I put a glass of water out on a hot summer day, it would evaporate over time. But what i assume would happen is that the water molecules closest to the heat source (the top of the glass of water) would evaporate before any of the other water molecules

Assuming that is correct, there is water on the top level of the ocean that keeps getting evaporated and rained on over and over again. But also the water at the bottom of the ocean just stays down there cause it's not getting evaporated by the sun

Do I understand that correctly or am I missing something?

Hi! I absolutely love octopuses, and I would really like to see one in its natural habitat someday. Unfortunately, I don't dive, so I was wondering if you could recommend any places or areas where it might be possible to spot octopuses from the shore or while snorkeling. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

Went to North Stradbroke hoping for sharks. Came back with these turtle and eagle ray encounters instead. Would recommend for anyone keen on seeing the other side! Manta lodge dive centre is excellent on point lookout

So I'm hoping to start an associates program relatively soon, then transfer to my local university for a bachelors in oceanography with a minor in marine conservation and ecology. Education after that point will be determined when I decide on which part of oceanography I enjoy most.

My main concern is the difficulty of classes, primarily physics, but also chemistry and calculus. If you work in a related field, what's your position and in what scenarios have you used the skill sets learned from those classes? Knowing the real-world application of them helps motivate me in areas like that. I just want to know what I'm taking those classes for specifically, if that makes sense. I'm interested in any and all fields based around the ocean, including engineering.

Hi all, I'm keen to learn a bit of Python and have been given the go-ahead to book onto a course using my training grant. I work with climate and oceanographical data, mainly in MATLAB, but want to try Python as I feel it will be more applicable to jobs etc.

I've only been using MATLAB for two years now and I wouldn't say I'm the most confident in coding, so would love a recommendation for a UK/Ireland based course for beginners/intermediate.

Thank you so much!

hi, were highschool researchers and our study where we made artificial coral structures out of cement, shells, rocks, and recycled glass to see if they can help bring back marine life in damaged reefs. We’re checking how well they hold up underwater and if more organisms attach to them compared to plain cement. What do you think we can still improve about our study?
Any suggestions from people who actually know marine biology?