Becoming a marine scientist

Dr Miles Lamare, from the University of Otago, has always been fascinated by biology. In this video, he talks about becoming a marine scientist and some of his experiences working in amazing places around the world, including Antarctica.

Transcript

DR MILES LAMARE I always had a fascination with biology really. Pretty corny, but I like the outdoors, I like scuba diving and just, you know, got more interested in how things work and just loved animals, I suppose. My job has taken me all around the world, I mean, down to the Antarctic and up into the tropics. And it’s a big adventure – you know, you can look at the Discovery Channel and you see people doing this sort of thing, but you can do it yourself if you really want to. You know, there’s lots of opportunities to visit marine labs all around the world and visit exotic places and look at really interesting species. The places I’ve been to? I mean, the weirdest place would have to be diving in the Antarctic, because, you know, you are diving under sea ice and it’s very, very clear water. But even on the sea floor there’s ice. The water is so cold that there’s ice everywhere. So Antarctica is certainly up there. I remember the first time I went diving there. We were sitting in this dive hut and I was looking down this hole they had drilled and it was pitch black and I’m like, there’s no way I’m getting in there. But anyway, they pushed me in and went diving down there, and once I hit the sea floor, there were starfish and sea urchins, and I suddenly felt at home again, you know, there were these animals I was very familiar with.

Acknowledgement: Dr Katja Riedel