Case studies: Research assistant: Paul

Paul graduated with a BSc in Marine and Freshwater Biology in 2004, took an MSc in 2005, and is currently a research assistant at an ocean lab in the UK.

My current research position, which is funded by the EU, focuses on developing a greater understanding of the recently discovered cold water coral communities. This will allow future decisions to be made regarding their protection from the effects of activities such as deep sea trawling.

In essence, I use autonomous landers (time sequence cameras) baited with mackerel to identify the species and quantities of marine life that come to feed on the bait and compare this data in coral reef and non-coral areas.

This is a continuation of my longstanding interest in fish, which led to my doing a BSc degree in Marine and Freshwater Biology and then a Masters in Marine Biology. My pre-university work experience included working with an aquatic retailer selecting fish stock, advising on set ups and diagnosing fish illnesses through mucus samples, which developed my expertise in parasitology. While I was an undergraduate, I got experience in diving, seasearch and boat handling, as well as conducting research for postgraduates. After university, I spent a summer working for the New York Aquarium as part of their dive and educational talks teams. I then had a particularly interesting spell as a field environmental scientist with Garline Environmental, gathering data in the field on habitats present at development sites and providing advice to oil and gas companies on the location of habitats and species protected by law. This gave me a very real insight into life at sea, the use of specialised equipment for assessing environmental impact and the commercial costs of rerouting operations to protect marine habitats.

My day-to-day work as a research assistant includes:

• constructing and maintaining the landers for recording marine life activity;
• reanalysing data back to the 1980s to make comparisons;
• species identification and quantification;
• undertaking sea going cruises to deploy the landers and to support conducting scientific trawls and other projects;
• managing the EU funding that finances the entire project;
• liaising with equipment suppliers, fellow academics and other institutions across the UK.

Key skills for my current role include:

• organisation and time management to synchronise suppliers, develop equipment and undertake the experiments;
• managing budgets; 
• employing analytical skills in the photo identification of animal species as well as interpreting the information when combining these with environmental data;
• extensive use of an access database scanning and digitising previous images and sorting by area and depth.

I think students interested in this field should do all they can to work on local projects - volunteer for academics, do the routine data collection for Masters or PhD students and do voluntary work for conservation groups. Be excited and interested and others will want you on board. I can’t stress enough how it’s not the intelligent ones that make it but the passionate. The job is demanding with long periods offshore, but there’s nothing like being involved in an emerging science and finding new species - it’s unbeatable.