The responsibility of an Ocean Engineer is quite panoptic and among all the engineering sciences prevalent in today’s times, the toughest and the most difficult one. To put it simply, Ocean Engineering extends from building dams and reservoirs in a micro level to planning, designing and executing structures, equipments and constructions that benefit not just humans but also the existence of marine life-forms at its zenith.
The above explanation is perhaps the plainest way of explaining about “What does an Ocean Engineer do?” A best example of excellent Ocean Engineering would be the designing and the novel concept of the research centre at Bali, Indonesia. This research centre is located in the middle of the sea so as to facilitate to the scientists, a better understanding of the underwater earthquakes that cause havoc-wrecking tsunamis in the Indonesian Archipelago.
An Ideal Ocean Engineer
Ocean Engineering, as a profession involves major commitment and dedication on the part of an Ocean Engineer because of the nature of the job. Since an Ocean Engineer has to achieve a proper tandem between the marine eco-system and the developed human world, it is important that he pays absolute attention to minute details.
An Ocean Engineer has to be well-versed not just with his required educational background but also along with the extra-curricular skills that will help him to do his job well and achieve goodwill for his ideas. Practicality combined with the knowledge imparted from books, in today’s times, is a very important factor that an Ocean Engineer has to keep in mind while helping to put the world ahead in terms of its marine constructional development.
Ocean Engineering is a field that has a lot of scope for development and progress. And with the right skill-set like good communication skills, ability to work well as a team member and adeptness in the usage of a computer and its various applications and programmes, an Ocean Engineer can be expected to reach the top of the reclusive yet unique profession.
It is, however, also important to understand that an Ocean Engineer along with the above mentioned attributes is required to be aware and responsible about the core and staple object of his construction and designing – the water forms and the creatures and the flora and fauna that inhabit it.
After experiencing the mammoth sized ill-effects of events like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and since, designing of oil rigs also comes under the purview of an Ocean Engineer; it becomes more than mandatory that an Ocean Engineer pays a more than casual attention to otherwise perfunctory details.
Conclusion
As today’s contemporary world has developed, it has been seen that other life-forms especially marine life-forms owing to events like global warming and oil spill have started to face deterioration, degradation and even possible extinction. Therefore, it becomes an added responsibility of an Ocean Engineer under the bracket of the question “What does an Ocean Engineer do?” to take into account all such incidents and events so as to try to make amendments to the environment by creating and constructing better and safer devices and structures.
As the saying goes, “prevention is always better than cure”, and since Ocean Engineering involves the conception, creation and execution of ideas at the root level, asking an Ocean Engineer to take absolute care while undertaking a project is the best preventive measure that can ever be adopted.