Zoologists study animal life in all its diversity, including the interactions of animals with other organisms and with the physical and chemical components of the environment. Free-swimming, large and active life forms such as fish, corals and other attached organisms, burrowing animals, parasites, and microscopic animals are all of interest to the marine zoologist.
Animals are found in a stunning variety of physical conditions everywhere in the sea, from above the high tide mark to the abyssal depths. Zoologists study animals at all depths, but given the enormous difficulty and expense of studying abyssal life, have concentrated their efforts close to the sea surface and the coast. Zoologists may study the biochemistry or physiology of animals in the laboratory or, with the advent of automatic data loggers and transmitters carried by the animals, in their natural habitat. Other zoologists study animal behaviour, genetics or ecology.
Ecologists study the numbers of and interactions between organisms at several
levels. They may concentrate on the dynamics of populations of particular species
or communities of interacting species. An understanding of community dynamics
and how species interact is vital in fisheries and in the management of marine
ecosystems. Some marine ecologists investigate the movement of energy and molecules
through ecosystems.
Most marine ecologists work extensively in the field, which often involves SCUBA diving. They may work from major cities or from remote field stations in studying animals on coral reefs, rocky shores, sandy beaches, mudflats, and in mangrove forests or in seagrass beds. They also work in the laboratory sorting and processing samples, which usually requires identifying, counting and measuring animals, and analysing and interpreting data with the aid of a computer. Mathematics, statistics and computer modelling continue to increase in importance as basic tools of the modern zoologist.
The identification, classification, evolutionary relationships and geographic
distributions of animals are important areas of zoological research often pursued
in museums and universities. This can be challenging work both intellectually
and technically. The effects of pollution on organisms and ecosystems have also
become a major research area for zoologists. Industrial effluents, sewage outfalls,
runoff from agricultural areas, and stormwater from urban areas can all contain
substances with far-reaching and complex effects. It is possible that these pollutants
contribute to problems such as outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great
Barrier Reef. In dealing with these problems, zoologists must collaborate with
other marine scientists including botanists, mathematicians, physical oceanographers,
organic chemists and biochemists.
Marine zoologists are employed in a great diversity of areas at all levels of government including federal marine agencies (CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science), by universities and museums, and in a variety of endeavours in private industry, such as environmental consulting, ecotourism, and pharmaceutical research.
Photos: Interactions between species are of considerable interest to zoologists; here (top) a zoologist is setting up an experiment to study interactions between corals and algae. The bottom photograph represents several interactions other than the obvious one between a scallop and a coral in which it is buried; the coral benefits from microscopic symbiotic algae that occur in its tissues, and from the activities of the scallop in repelling predators.