Many people may ask if a Marine Biologist has a schedule to follow and a "typical day." The answer is no. There is no such thing as a 'typical day for a Marine Biologist.

Marine biology is a broad field of study and marine biologists and their daily tasks and jobs vary vastly depending on what they are studying, the type of study or research they are investigating and their specific skill set and location.

If a marine biologist is investigating great white shark behavior or fish population estimates will have a very different job to a marine biologist studying the growth rates of plankton in a laboratory.

There are two main broad categories a marine biologist’s job can be split into, these are fieldwork and lab/desk time, it’s important to know that both these parts of the job are just as important as each other as a scientist.

Fieldwork is what most people think of when they talk about marine biologists. Time in the field varies greatly depending on the data being collected and the research in hand, but generally field time accounts for a relatively small part of the job (20-30 %).

Field work is the time when scientists get out in the field of study to collect their data. This can be done a number of ways, whether it’s collecting samples of animals, or remanence of animal’s (faeces, fur, skin, blood and other bodily traces…), photos or videos of species or habitats, or observational surveys. It can be a lot of hard work, long hours and challenging conditions.

It can be a lot of hard work, long hours and challenging conditions. Often field work requires physical stamina and working strange hours or all hours to get the data you need in the limited time. This can be effected by lots of determining factors like weather, permits, physical injury and equipment failures, so it’s not all swimming with dolphins.

Some Pros are Diverse working environments Many marine biologists get to travel to diverse and beautiful locations all over the world. When doing research in the field many have to dive beneath the surface of the water, making their work days quite interesting and varied. In addition, some marine biologists can work in labs at universities or in the private sector for companies or corporations.