Aaron Mau (he/him)

Aaron Mau (he/him)

Data Analyst
Ocean Knowledge Team
Voice of the Ocean Foundation

Opportunities in Ocean Sciences

I have a personal bias towards ocean technology. Scientists are not always engineers (and vice versa), which makes multifaceted scientists especially powerful in the current day and age.

Cruise Opportunities

Cruises that I know about or are seeking volunteers.

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Sporadic

These are some organizations that are usually conducting cruises on varying timescales.

  • The International Ocean Drilling Program: The IODP focuses on marine geology, often from a geochronology perspective. These are ships equipped with drills or equipment for working on the seafloor.
  • UNOLS Cruise Volunteer Program: UNOLS vessels comprise the majority of ocean research in the United States and the UCVP is a good, centralized place to find cruises that are seeking volunteers for a variety of scientific objectives.

Annuals

This is a list of known cruises that happen on a yearly or biyearly basis

  • Okeanos Explorer Explorer-in-Training Program: Aimed at STEM students with U.S. citizenship. 2/4 or 10 week internships focused on the scientific method or accoustic mapping in the field.
  • OOI Cable Array Cruises: Also aimed at STEM students, the OOI services 3 cable arrays: Coastal & Global Scale Nodes (WHOI), Coastal Endurance (OSU), and Regional Cabled Array (UW), which require annual service and generally get ship time with an ROV.
  • Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigation Program: GO-SHIP is one of, if not, the largest international repeat hydrography program. These are month-long cruises focusing on CTD casts and associated subsampling, from salinity to virus counts.
  • The Ocean Exploration Trust Internship Program: Aimed at STEM students, Nautilus is renowned for high-tech and innovative exploration of deepwater environments.
  • The NOAA Southwest Fisheries Center: Studying the California Current and associated biology, NOAA does a trawl cruise or two every year to investigate fish populations along the coast of California and Baja peninsula.

Job Postings

Some Job Boards

  • The Marine Technical Society often has postings for techs, mariners, and researchers all around the United States.
  • Check out the RVTEC mailing list for sea-going technicians.
  • PMEL is a group with widely-distributed research and development areas.
  • UNOLS posts lost of job offers for crew operators, including engineers, cooks, and deck technicians.

Conferences

  • AGU - the largest Earth science conference in the world.
  • Ocean Sciences - the biggest oceanography-specific meeting.
  • ABGradcon - astrobiology conference focusing on graduate students.
  • ABScicon - like AGU, but for astrobiologists.
  • RVTEC - research vessel technician annual meeting.
  • ESA - the European space agency.
  • Offshore Technology - Offshore Technology Society, focusing on energy (typically more of a private sector thing).

Scholarships

This is mostly oriented towards students in oceanography or engineering.