Marine Biology Facts and Fantasiesof a Popular
CareerGoal James R. Smail is a professor of biology at MacalesterCollege, St. Paul, MN 55105. He has a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from the Universityof Illinois and trainedin marinescience at Duke University, FloridaState Universityand in Hawaii. Smail has conducted natural history and reef ecology trips on a sailing schooner in the windward islands of the Caribbean.His research interest lies in developmental biology and coral reef ecology, and Smail has written and lectured on Hawaiian natural history and James R. Smail marine science, particularlyon coral reef environments.
For most people, identifying a career goal is not voyages, scuba-diving, super cameras and personal easy. The difficulties are compounded by television submarines. Fitness, the outdoors, comraderie and where many careers are glamorized. Although "con- derring-do add easily to the mix. The young person sultants" may appear in the credits assuring accu- rides the ima-ginarydolphin and it all adds up to ma- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/50/8/484/43788/4448807.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 racy, the true nature of the given work or profession rine biology. Fantastic. But in the true sense of the may bear little resemblance to what is portrayed. word, it is largely fantasy. While most people may realize that this is true for The scientific study of the life of the sea is much medicine and law, in the biological sciences it is more than adventurous biological sight-seeing. In much less clear. For example, what do animal behav- fact, marine biology in itself is not a coherent disci- iorists do? Do they just move in with the animals in pline. It is a composite of many biological disciplines, the wild? How are they trained?What credentialsare including basic botany and zoology. Cataloging the required for them to make meaningful contributions life in the sea is a division of basic zoology. It doesn't to their professions? How does one become a park stand alone any more than cataloging the life in a ranger or a forester, an environmentalistor a marine rain forest or one's back yard. Marine ecologists, for biologist? example, are concerned with competition, predation, The comments that follow focus on the lure of the succession and population dynamics in the many ocean and the life it contains, but they may be ap- different marine habitats. But ecology remains the plied to any of the vast number of important and re- scientific and intellectual home for these scientists warding careers-including teaching-that the be- and their findings add first to the body of knowledge ginning natural scientist may seek. in ecology and only secondarily to marine biology. The interest that young people today have in the Developmental biologists may be interested in how life of the sea is usually initiated by now common but swimming larvae metamorphose into creeping still remarkabletelevision footage of whales, sharks adults, but the focus of their interest is development, and coral reefs. Visits to the growing number of ex- not the ocean. Neurophysiologists have favorite ma- cellent aquariaand sea-life parks incrase this interest. rine organisms-who hasn't heard of the squid's Outstanding color photography in the popular press giant axon or the "hard-wired" nervous system of and the dazzling coffee-table books on shells, corals the sea hare? Still, these scientists are first and fore- and marine mammals clinch the desire. most biologists whose special interest in eggs, "I want to be a marine biologist." Everyone who nerves, physiology or behavior have led them to the teaches in any of the sciences and at practicallyany sea-going objects of their study. Their efforts as biol- level knows this motivation and knows that it can be ogists first add to information about particular or- every bit as strong as "I want to be a doctor." It can ganisms rather than about the ocean. They are biolo- also be just as uninformed. gists first and marine biologists second, if at all. It's wonderful when students become excited Biological oceanography, on the other hand, is about something, particularlya career goal. It gives where the several basic sciences are all brought to them ambition, a sense of direction and a sense of bear on some problem in ocean science that happens confidence and identity. "Marine biologist" sounds to involve organisms in the sea. Here the ocean great. It conjures up a life of worldly involvement system is the primary object of study. Its major sub- unfettered by the demands and commotion of life on jects include the populations and distributionin time land. It gets one close up to exotic, mysterious and and space of marine organisms, their interactions awesome organisms. It appeals to altruism and ac- with other organisms and with the physical chemical tivism-save the whales, save the porpoises, feed a and geological parameters of their environment. Or- hungry world-and abounds with adventure. It is ganic productivity, food webs, fisheries, evolution attended by images of glamorous travel, ocean theory, the history of the oceans, resource develop-
484 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 50, NO. 8, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1988 ment and management, economics and international each in modern marine science, but they are not the law are also touched on by biological oceanography, body of it. The body of marine science is composed as is man's influence on the ocean system. of the basic sciences of biology, geology, physics and For a biologist really to become a marine scientist, chemistry, and the ultimate language of all of them, there must be willingness to probe outside the con- math. fines of biology. Chemistry, physics, geology and Encourage students who want to find out more mathematics are all brought to bear in the search for about marine science to go to the library and check solutions to the problems raised. There is usually no out a textbook or two on oceanography. See what is attempt to infer or generalize beyond the marine discussed and in what terms. There will usually be a system, however. chapter or two on the life in the sea. Ask the student Since seawater everywhere contains organisms to notice how it is treated. Compare this with treat- that remove materialsfrom the water and add others ments of the same organisms in botany or zoology to it, chemical oceanography has a strong biological texts. Next, have them look at some texts with 'ma- component-and vice versa. Since the dynamic rine biology' in the title (there are far fewer of these). character of the earth causes ocean basins to form Compare them with the oceanography texts. These and disappear over long geological time, the geologic will also deal with marine chemistry and with the and and fossil records uncovered by geological oceanog- history dynamics of the marine system. Despite Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/50/8/484/43788/4448807.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 raphy can tell us much about the ocean's history and a different emphasis, there is an odd similarity be- health. Since the water is heated unevenly by the sun tween such texts. The principal subject remains and is set in motion as a liquid on a spinning sphere, ocean science. the distribution of materials and organisms is incon- Students with a serious interest in marine science stant. Physical oceanography speaks to these points should be advised to prepare themselves vigorously as well as to the energetics of ocean/atmosphere ex- in all the basic sciences, specializing in one that may change, climate determination and so on. Clearly, be of particularinterest-say biology-but including chemistry, geology and physics are all important to the strongest possible mix of the others. This starts in any unified understanding of the world ocean and secondary school and continues in college. Leading what it contains. It is through these basic sciences graduate schools of oceanography like to see appli- that understanding and prediction become possible cants with good, broad science backgrounds and with regard to life in the sea. mathematics that includes computer familiarity, The aspiring "marine biologist" must first become plenty of calculus and differential equations. There a biologist. This means learning about the nature and are jobs, careers and support for those who are well organization of the entire living world and how it prepared and well trained in marine science . . . in- functions on levels from molecules through or- cluding biological oceanography! ganisms to populations. Many organisms of special interest will happen to live in the sea, but just studying their biology does not make one a marine biologist. It makes one a biologist of a marine or- References ganism. If the study enlarges to include the or- Gross, M.G. (1987). Oceanography:A view of the earth(4th ganism's relation to the chemicals and to the physical ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. and geological features important to its life (or to Lerman, M. (1986). Marine biology:Environment, diversity and ecology.Menlo Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings which it contributes) the study becomes biological Publishing Co. oceanography ... and the student becomes a biolog- McConnaughy,B.H. & Zottoli, R. (1983).Introduction to ma- ical oceanographer. rinebiology (4th ed.). St. Louis: C.V. Mosby Co. This is how the biologist becomes a student of the Sumich, J.L. (1984). An introductionto the biologyof marine sea and how as a biologist he or she may contribute life (3rd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers. Thurman, H.V. (1985). Introductoryoceanography (5th ed.). to marine science. Underwater touring, sightseeing Columbus, OH: Charles E. MerrillPublishing Co. and photography, important and rewarding as they Thurman,H.V. & Webber,H.H. (1984).Marine biology. Co- are, are not marine science. There may be aspects of lumbus, OH: Charles E. MerrillPublishing Co.
Strategiesfor the Classroom & Laboratory:NABT Regional Meeting April 27-29, 1989, SheratonCrystal City, Washington,D.C.
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