This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2010 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

3- What is Marine Biology?

5- Microbiology

7- Fisheries and Aquaculture

9- Environmental Marine Biology

11- Deep Sea Ecology

          Hydrothermal Vents

13, 14- Ichthyology

          Skeletal fish

           Cartilaginous Fish

15- Marine Mammalogy 

17- Studying Marine Biology

18- Glossary

Marine biology is the study of organisms that live in the ocean 

or other marine bodies of water.   To study these organisms, 

marine biologists use the scientific method.   This means 

characterizing an organism by its behavior, then making a 

hypothesis, predicting what will happen, and then testing the 

hypothesis.   The Earth consists of a lot of water that contains 

many different types of organisms. Thus, there are many 

different sub-fields under the career of marine biology.

Microbiology is a sub-field under marine 

biology. It is the study of microorganisms 

such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and 

algae. Microorganisms play an important role 

in the underwater food chain.  

Microbiologists study what role these 

organisms play.   Some of these organisms can 

be used to develop medicines and find cures 

for diseases.

Scientists in the sub-field of fisheries study fish ecosystems 

which includes population, behavior, food webs, reproduction, 

and the habitats of large groups of fish. They also study what 

will happen if there is a lot of over fishing.   It would cause 

habitat destruction, an increase in pollution, and a decrease 

in the population of fish.   Biologists would also hypothesize 

ways to increase a fish population after a great amount of 

over fishing for consumer demand on seafood.   Aquaculture 

is researching the development of individual organisms.  

They create seafood “farms” to increase a certain fish 

species’ population for consumer products such as seafood.

e

n

t

e

r 

t

e

x

t 

h

e

r

e

    Environmental marine biologists study ocean 

health.   They check water quality to ensure that 

is healthy enough for underwater organisms to 

live in.   These biologists also ensure safety for 

beaches because there are many threats to 

marine life including, different kinds of 

pollutants, oil spills, and runoffs due to human 

behavior.

An oil spill 

in 

seawater.  

Oil is a 

type of 

pollutant.

You've previewed 11 of 18 pages.

To read more: