So You Want to Be a Marine Biologist

IT guru at PEW Charitable Trusts, Dawn Borg Costanzi joins us on the SYWTBAMB podcast. Her job? To help track international fisheries. Which wasn't what she thought she would do initially. Originally, Dawn was going to go into software design. In this episode, we chat about how the fishing world captivated Dawn’s interest and how she’s navigated working for private entities and a large NGO...

Brandon Doheny is a marine scientist, diver, and sailor. Our conversation today ranges from crazy two hundred plus foot dives to eDNA sampling to teaching technology to identify sea creatures. Currently Brandon is on an extended sailing trip with his family, sailing from California to New Zealand, so of course we chat a bit about this adventure.

Show Notes: marinebio...

We’re diving into the wonderful world of seaweeds! My guest today is Allison Poklemba, environmental educator, botanist, and herbalist. Allison shares how plants have fascinated her from a young age, why her move across the country for university was the financially responsible choice, and how she incorporated both botany and herbalism into her career. Allison puts a few different species of kelp on highlight today including bullwhip kelp and wakame...

Dr. Andia Fonnegra Chavez studies sponges and their interactions on reefs at Florida Atlantic University.. In today’s fascinating conversation, Andia shares her story falling in love with the ocean growing up in Colombia, and how she ultimately ended up in the States. We chat about how sponges are important members of the reef building and maintenance crew, how most of the color you see on reefs are in fact sponges, the importance of following your own path, and so much more...

Valeria Vergara is a senior research scientist at Raincoast Conservation Foundation where she co-directs the Cetacean Conservation Research Program. Her main focus? Beluga Whales. Originally hailing from Argentia, Valeria studied canids- specifically coyotes and foxes- during her undergrad and masters degree. It wasn’t until her PhD that she switched to the marine world...

Kristy Bredin is an herbalist, educator and owner of Mermaid botanicals. She lives in the San Juan Island in Washington State. In this episode, you’ll learn what herbalism is, how seaweed is the ancestor to all land plants, some of the magical powers of marine algae, and what a day in the life of an ocean herbalist looks like- tide pools are involved.

Show notes: marinebio...

Winnie Courtene-Jones is a researcher at the University of Plymouth in their International Marine Litter Research Unit. We had such a fun conversation today starting with Winnie’s volunteer position studying dolphins off the coast of Wales. Winnie shares her graduate research of, essentially, watching hermit crabs duke it out, and how she definitely wasn’t going to get PhD. Until she did. She also explains what being self employed in the marine science means...

Steve Burton has what most people would consider to be the dream job. As the Director of the Marine Mammal and Stranding Assessment program at Harbor Branch, Steve’s job is to work with dolphins and whales. In addition to responding to animals in distress, he also gets to conduct population assessments, the scientific way of describing going out on the boat to look for dolphins and whales...

Harri is an aquatic animal biologist and ecologist which is a broad way to describe his work monitoring fish patterns and their implications with our changing climate, and spending time at camp tagging whales. We have a fun conversation today covering topics ranging from tropical sharks to arctic fish and even narwhals...

Jim Sullivan has had a fascinating career starting with the smallest, and quite possibly the mightiest, organism in the sea, phytoplankton. From doing ground-breaking scientific research, including anti-submarine warfare research, to inventing new oceanographic equipment to leading an oceanographic institute, Jim has had quite the diverse career...