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Jamie Fitzpatrick

Ocean Ambassadors: Tyler Engert

Ocean sciences might seem an unusual career choice for a man who grew up thousands of miles from salt water.

Tyler Engert is from Cornwall, in southern Ontario. There are no seafaring stories in his family. No sailors, fishers, or marine researchers.

But as an undergraduate student at ������Ƶ, it’s the ocean that has captured his imagination.

“I was considering different fields in biology, and marine biology was always in the back of my mind,” he says. “When I was a boy we went to both coasts on family vacations. It made me curious about the ocean.”

That curiosity opened a career path when he came to MUN in September of 2013.

A few days after arriving on campus, Tyler attended “Everything Science,” the annual Faculty of Science orientation event for first-year students. He was drawn to the ocean sciences display, with its marine touch tank.

“I didn’t touch any of the animals,” he says with a laugh. “When I was younger I had issues with touching creatures. I knew I had to get through that if I wanted to do biology. But I did ask a lot of questions, and that really got the ball rolling, got me thinking about marine biology and all the possibilities.”

Touching and handling undersea creatures is no longer an issue for Tyler. In fact, he already has a favourite. It’s the sea slug.

“It’s really interesting how they’ve adapted to their environment. Some sea slugs defend themselves by hiding. Others secrete an acid to drive predators away. Some of them will actually eat the stinger cells from a jellyfish and adapt those cells for their own body. So if you touch it, it’s the same as touching a jellyfish.”

“With invertebrates, there’s so much variety and diversity. Each animal is so different. Some of them can live in a hydrothermal vent where the pressure and temperature are incredible. It’s amazing.”

Last summer, Tyler put his newfound knowledge and enthusiasm to work at the Ocean Science Centre. He was an interpreter with the OSC’s Public Education Program, greeting thousands of visitors and introducing them to the North Atlantic ecosystem.

“We showed them the touch tanks and the harp seals, and talked about the ocean off Newfoundland. Sometimes people had really good questions, and if I didn’t know the answer I’d go and ask (on-site researchers). I learned so much there, and it’s been a huge help with my classes.”

Tyler plans to major in marine biology, with a minor in ocean sciences. He’s already thinking about a possible second degree in ocean technology, at the Marine Institute.

“I enjoy dissecting and examining specimens, the hands-on, tactile research. But I want to do the fieldwork too. I want to man the ROV out on the ocean and explore.”

Moving to St. John’s from Cornwall hasn’t always been easy. “I didn’t know there could be so much wind anywhere,” he says, recalling his first Newfoundland winter. But adjusting to a new environment has been part of his student adventure.

“I wanted something different, something I hadn’t seen before. The ecosystem here is very different. That’s part of what drew me here, the ocean ecosystem, the different sea currents and all the life down there. It’s amazing to think about it and study it.”

 For more on our Ocean Ambassadors Series check out  or the Oceans Learning Partnership (OLP) web site