Marine Mammals and what to do?

Hi,

This may help you:
http://www.imata.org/cms.php?13

In the unemployment lines??

Im partly joking, but just realize the struggle you are going to have to go through to get a job at an aquarium/zoo. Most of the vets there either have connections, come from small animal facilities, or are well known in that field.

However, if you don't want to go to an aquarium/zoo there are opportunities out there for field research and clinical pathology for vets wanting to work with marine mammals. I would check those avenues out! I am not familiar with this field myself, so maybe someone else can mention organizations that do marine mammals research or pathology that hire vets.

Er . . ok sorry Lag, apparently I need more coffee this morning cause I didnt catch the part of your post which stated you know of the job shortage so ignore my first paragraph. SORRY!

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the NAVY... I don't know much about all that they do but I know that their programs using dolphins/sea lions/ etc are still going on and that they do hire veterinarians. That might be worth looking into; I'm not sure if you would necessarily have to be IN the navy or if you could do it as a civilian vet hired on, but I've heard that they do hire outside vets as well as using their own vets (all of which actually come from the army, i believe.) Good luck! I would be right there with you with the marine mammals, but I'm afraid I'm not quite up for years of interning after vet school.

The Navy does not hire veterinarians nor do they commission them. A pity . . . ONly the Air Force and Army does.

They do however use army veterinarians to care for the animals, but usually the vets are stationed in San Diego Naval Base and have a wide variety of other duties (food inspection, etc.) other than taking care of the animals all day. They also utilize a civy vet, but I think it is not a full time vet. This position is also very competitive to get into when you are in the army.

They San Diego area where they keep the animals however, does have internships available:

http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/technology/mammals/

If you are really dead set on Marine Mammals, then why get a job, do research!

After you get your DVM (or before depending on if you get in), consider Academia. You could write grants, go out on ships, collect samples, evaluate disease and epidemiologies.

I would imagine it is a HUGE untapped field. You would probably have to be a bit imaginative with your grant proposals, but I can already thinks of some relevant proposals you could write concerning Marine Mammals, and I know nothing about them.

Polar Bear (polar bears marine mammals? think so) health and relation with global warming and reduced habitat (trash savaging)

Sonar (give dolphins/Cetaceans a break) - There was a DoD RFP a few years ago to evaluate sonar on other marine life (believe looking for sentinel animals). What other animals might be affected by them? Sure the DoD would throw you some money.

Immunology - The last update of CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine was 2001, and there was not a whole lot done in between. Anytime you can find something weird you can find a place to publish it and some $$.

Hardest thing about doing research is doing something you are passionate about. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to go into this field unless they are passionate about it, so i'd say your almost there.

EDIT:
Also, Why do so many people feel the need to Niche themselves some much in this field? I mean, sure people go into Equine, but that is an already very well developed, establish and FUNDED field. I wouldn't go into SA only to work on Orange Tabby Cats.

Instead of Marine Mammal, why not think of yourself as a Marine Vet (Marine Aquaculture is growing FAST - and disease is right now one of the limiting factors). Or better yet an Semi-Aquatic Vet (freshwater needs lovin too). You can still play with sea lions and dolphins, but your job/research opportunities would be greatly increased.

Check this out, I thought this looked interesting but is for 4th year vet students.

Are you sure you want to be a marine mammal vet? I only ask because a lot of medical care in marine animal field is not actually done by vets. In captivity, it's usually the trainers who provide basic medical care and monitor the health of the animals. Then vets are only called out when it involves something that the trainers and caregives can't do on their own. Wild and stranded marine mammals are taken care of by groups made up of a wide range of professionals with different job titles. I do believe that most vets who care for marine mammals typically care for other animals as well.

Try to envision what it is you want to do without labeling it with a job title to begin with. Rescue wild marine mammals, care for captive ones on a daily basis, work on conservation strategies, enrich captive living environments, provide medical care (for aquatic animals solely or along with other wild/zoo animals), etc. Once you know what you want to do, search to see what career most fits what you want. Many will have overlaps on responsibilities either with other animals or with other activities with specific animals. Also remember that even if you do get a vet job working solely with marine animals, you will spend four years of intensive study of mostly dogs, cats, cows and horses first. Other careers involving marine animals will have an education path learning about marine animals first.

If you do decide it's a vet career you want, here's the site for the International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine. http://iaaam.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=18. You might also want to look into Cornell's Aquavet http://web.vet.cornell.edu/public/aquavet/ and the Marvet program http://www.marvet.org/.

And the Navy does have full time vets on staff at their San Diego location. http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/technology/mammals/veterinary.html They also have externships for fourth year vet student who will work with the veterinary staff. http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/technology/mammals/interns.html