As a relatively new frontier, oceanography is a wonderfully challenging and exciting field of study providing many career opportunities. Chemical, geological, and physical oceanographers investigate the physical aspects of the ocean, such as salinity, currents, and the ocean floor. Biological oceanographers study marine plants and animals and their processes within the context of their ocean environments. Ocean engineers provide the technology and instrumentation that allows oceanographers to explore questions and solve problems in a variety of ways.
Oceanographers are global scientists who study a wide variety of topics.
For instance, as a chemical oceanographer you might study how sea water and sediments form, how pollutants and waste disposal impact the ocean, or how the ocean effects climate. As a marine geologist or geophysicist, you may study the formation of beaches, map the earth's interior, or drill into the ocean's floor to discover the ocean's history of sea-level rise and earthquakes. Understanding these questions helps to develop sound management policies for harvesting seafood, re-sponding to pollution, and recovering resources for biotechnology. The newest area of biological oceanography is marine molecular biology. Marine biology is the best known area of biological oceanography, and because of it's popularity, it is currently the most competitive field of oceanography to find a job in.