Marine specialists are staff members available for hire in the Marine Mania expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon. They are essential for taking care of tank bound animals as regular zookeepers cannot enter tanks. They are also responsible for conducting marine shows. Marine specialists do not return in Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania, with their duties replaced by regular Zookeepers for animal care and Trainers for conducting shows, respectively.
In Zoo Tycoon[]

Marine specialist staff facts in Zoo Tycoon.

A marine specialist on the completion screen of a Marine Mania scenario.
In Zoo Tycoon and its expansion packs, marine specialists will only care for animals that can live in tanks. Marine specialists can be hired from the staff menu and handle feeding, healing and cleaning up tanks for marine animals in the player's zoo, as well as conducting shows. Marine specialists, like other staff members, have a 50/50 chance of being male or female when hired, and each have a slight variation in their graphics to indicate sex.
Assignments[]
Marine specialists may be assigned to tanks by clicking on the assignment button in their staff info screen and then clicking inside tanks the player would like them to take care of. One marine specialist is able to attend to several tanks. Care must be taken to not assign too many tanks to one marine specialist as it may cause the player's animals to become unhappy due to running out of food or becoming sick due to a tank becoming dirty. Marine specialists cannot be assigned to exhibits that contain land animals only, as well as hybrid tank-land exhibits. They can also be assigned to specific show tanks in order to conduct the show in said tank.
Behavior[]
Healing[]
Marine specialists will constantly be monitoring for sick animals while inside a tank and will pathfind to any to heal them. If the path to a sick animal is blocked a message will appear saying the marine specialist was unable to reach the animal. Marine specialists can often get stuck in a loop of healing animals if a tank is sufficiently dirty and there are no other specialists or tank filters to help them.
Feeding[]
Marine specialists, upon entering a tank or being placed in one, immediately perform a check to see if there is animal food in the exhibit. If there is no food the marine specialist will place food down and will not perform this check again until they have left and returned again (being picked up and set down again by the player also counts).
Tank Cleaning[]
Marine specialists will clean dirty tanks while they are in them. For smaller tanks a marine specialist may be able to substitute for a tank filter, but cleaning takes up a lot of time that would otherwise be spent caring for other animals in the zoo. As mentioned previously, marine specialists can often get stuck in a loop of cleaning dirty tanks and healing sick creatures due to the length of the animation and the continuous health drain on the animal, so it is advised to start investing in tank filters and maintenance workers once the player has more money to spare.
Show conducting[]
Marine specialists that are assigned to a show tank are able to conduct shows from the show tank's entrance. If a show tank is attached to a normal tank containing at least one of the six animals capable to performing in shows and is set to anything other than never, an assigned marine specialist will periodically conduct a show. A message will be shown to the player at the start of each show informing them a show is starting.
Trivia[]
- Marine specialists are the only staff member in Zoo Tycoon and it's expansions that can be placed on water terrain or in tanks.