NatureDiver:
The key difference between biological oceanography and marine biology, is that the former trains you how to be an oceanographer with an emphasis in biology, while the latter "simply" builds upon a preexisting life sciences background and *may* train you on oceanography. This is generalizing somewhat and not well apparent to lay-folk, but clear as night and day to oceanographers and marine biologists.
A biological oceanography degree should, sensu strictu, be wrapped around a general oceanography core. That is, coursework in physical, chemical, biological, and (if they have it), geological oceanography. Whereas a marine biology degree can take any color of the rainbow. It is also important to realize that for every "marine biology" graduate degree offered in the U.S., there are at least three other life sciences graduate programs that will train you as a "marine biologist", but the official title of the degree is something else (i.e. Wildlife, Ecology, Zoology, Botany, Microbiology, etc.). Which is why hunting for graduate programs in marine biology is often far more complicated than it would be for say, a degree in oceanography or natural resource management. After all, almost every 4-year college has a biology department.
Often a marine biology graduate program is nothing more than a general biology graduate program that so happens to be based near a coastline and offers a few faculty courses on some facet of the marine environment. There's an enormous amount of variation between different universities.
A nice thing about most oceanography graduate degrees is that any ol' person with a BS or BA can apply. Whereas in marine biology, it's generally assumed that incoming graduate students have a base bachelor's degree in the life sciences. Taking the GRE subject test (Biology) is often a prerequisite, and if not a prereq, then still recommended. However, some degrees in marine biology are highly specialized (ie marine mammals), and previous life sciences background is not so important.
A marine science program, sensu strictu, is much closer to general oceanography than it is to marine biology. Like oceanography (and biological oceanography), your training and coursework are more broad-based. You're supposed to get a lot more math too. The math requirement is very minimal in most biology programs, usually whatever the state requires.
Many smaller universities often blur the distinctions between oceanography, marine biology, marine science, and marine resource management. There's only so much faculty to go around. Usually oceanography programs are only maintained at larger (TAMU) or specialty (Wood's Hole) schools, as it's more expensive to maintain (ships, technicians, hi-end equipment).
Regarding Duke, I'll second and third that it's a fine school with fine faculty and research labs. Excepting their marine resource management program, some of whose recent graduates have filled me with dismay.:shakehead
It's a geosciences rather than a life sciences degree, after all. Most marine bio grad programs do not require the geography, geology, GIS, computer programming, chemistry, blah blah that are part and parcel of biological oceanography programs. The marine bio folks make up the difference with strong life sciences components/training to their degree offerings.
