Can nudibranchs be my job? Help me figure it out

[Polpessa]

I have fallen in love with nudibranchs and would love to have a job involving finding and observing them. Is there a job involving them where I would spend more time diving and observing them than in the lab?

Problem is, I am oldish (36) and have no science/biology qualifications, not even from high school. I do have a B.A. but it's in language studies. I am a certified PADI dive instructor and have about 500 dives under my belt.

What should I do? Should I go back to high school at night, take biology and science courses and then go back to university and do a biology degree, and *gulp* graduate at age 40?

Or should I try to find volunteer research assistant positions and hope this will eventually lead to some sort of paid work? Do these positions exist in reference to something as specific as nudibranchs and if so, would I be able to obtain one?

Or should I do something else entirely? I tried working as a divemaster/instructor but most of my customers weren't interested in little slugs and wanted to go fast in order to see big things, so that didn't work out as my dream job.

I was lucky to find what I love in life but unlucky enough to discover it at a comparatively late age...what should I do? Any help much appreciated.

 

[diversteve]

I'd start by asking someone here:
The Sea Slug Forum - Participants' list
Other resources:
The Slug Site

 

[SteveC]

Let me say it this way, there is NO money in diving, especially fun diving!
Think of the logic here. If some company would pay you to go diving and observe ANYTHING underwater, can you imagine how many divers would sign up?

 

[DiverBeth]

Polpessa I can't say I blame you. Nudis are very cool. But alas SteveC is right but we can dream and when we do dive try to find as many as we can.

 

[drbill]

Bah humbug to reality... as mythologist Joseph Campbell said "Follow your bliss." I've found I was often much happier when I was poor than when I was well-to-do. Of course after being a marine biologist for decades, I'd like another shot at wealth just to increase my dataset!

 

[Polpessa]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your comments and your honesty. I wasn't really expecting that I could make loads of cash looking for nudis (I'm not that naieve!!), I was more wondering whether there are jobs within the scientific community where I could manage to support myself on a subsistence level while doing what I love. Even if I could get a research assistant position where I was given room and board in exchange for diving work I would be happy. But if you are all sure this is impossible perhaps I have to put that dream to rest forever. :-(

 

[covediver]

Thankfully, there are lots of people who believe there is no money in diving. It allows those of us who don't believe this to have gotten jobs where diving and observation were at least part of the job description.

So you graduate at 40 if you start now. In four years, if you don't start all you will be in four years is 48 months older than you are now. I started back to grad school at the ripe age of 32 and graduated with a Ph.D. It wasn't easy, but it was fun and meant that I lived in shabby gentility but along the way I got jobs that allowed me to dive and get paid. I was interested in marine engineering but it turned out that I didn't quite have the right courses for environmental engineering without starting all over. I ended up in ocean resources management instead, a field that I was little qualified for before going back to school.

Still not sure? Do you have a community college near you? It may offer the best opportunity to take the prerequisite lab courses to see if you really like the lab work and other things it will take to make the change without too much of an investment.

 

[Hank49]

But if you are all sure this is impossible perhaps I have to put that dream to rest forever. :-(

There are other ways than getting a PhD. You COULD up and move to the Philippines or SE Asia somewhere and most likely find a job in a dive shop if you're willing to hang around long enough. Go in the low season and work your way in. You can survive and there are tons of nudis in that part of the world.

 

[--tom--]

Realistically, you'll need a PhD to get any money just observing. I recommend studying how to get grant money. I haven't figured out how or why governments spend for research...I leave that to people far more intelligent than me.

I started college at the age of 45, at the ripe old age of 52 I earned my masters. While I don't dive for a living, I work fewer hours and get paid almost twice as much as before I went to college. I can afford to dive 60+ times a year instead of 12, so go for it. It pays in other ways. You can make a lot of contacts in the scientific community, if that is your interest. If you don't mind volunteering, in the States you might look at an AAUS certification to be a safety diver with one of the colleges with a marine biology program. It will give lots of time just to chill and watch. I don't know if there is a similar organization in Canada. Best of luck to you.