Are there volunteer jobs for people interested in Oceanography?

Question

I know you can pay to "work" or even get paid to do simple jobs on Archeology digs....is there something similar in Oceangraphy?

Answer 1

If you are talking about doing chemical and physical oceanography, not really.  The problem with "volunteers" is that they can quit on you if they get fed up.  That tends to be problematic on a ship, since there is no way off if you are out in the middle of an ocean.  Therefore, typically, if you go out on a ship to do work, whoever is taking you along will want to pay you and have you under some sort of contract in place so there will be an expectation of performance.  

Periodically, openings do come up for jobs as a "warm body" on a cruise (i.e., someone to run very standardized analysis or sample collection), but finding out about these opportunities is not easy.  You have to know someone or an institution, and you have to have some very basic scientific skills.  A good way to go about getting these connections and an appropriate skill set, if you're already in college, is through summer intern programs at schools/institutions offering degrees in oceanography.  Googling "oceanography intern programs" identifies many of these around the country.  If you're not in college yet, or have graduated, the summer intern programs are a good place to start, asking a school in your area if they have anything for high school or returning students etc.  

If you are talking about working with marine creatures and so forth, nearly every public aquarium will have a volunteer program.  There is a typically a lot of training you have to do, but then you lead tours, act as docents etc.  

As they say, free advice is worth every penny.  :-)