Today we talk to James Stapley. James is a student at Rhodes University in the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science. However, because he's interested in taxonomy, and the experts in that field are at SAIAB just next door, he actually has his office in that building.

James is in charge of coordinating the data gathered on the coelacanth expeditions, and he also created and updates this website, and does a bit of unofficial photojournalism on the side! His current topic of study is a group of small, silvery fishes called flagtails. He says that flagtails really know how to choose a good place to live - they like living around palm fringed tropical islands, mostly! Whilst he was working on that, people found out he could fix their computers, so they put him in charge of "things computer" on this Programme!

What do you enjoy about your work? What makes it interesting?
Every day I learn something new about fish, computers and innumerable other things. All my life I have enjoyed learning and discovering things that I haven't known before, and being here lets me really get into that.

There are a couple of perks in the job, like getting to go diving (occasionally!) in really cool places like Aliwal Shoal and Sodwana Bay. And without this, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to join this expedition!

When did you decide to become a scientist in this field?

Hmm, I've wanted to be a scientist for as long as I can remember. I guess I decided to become an Ichthyologist when I was about 10 or so. I couldn't do Ichthyology at undergraduate level in the UK (where I'm from), but as a postgraduate MSc student (what I'm doing now) I chose to do Ichthyology. I've always been fascinated by fish, probably (according to my parents!) since I was 4 or 5.

What's the most exciting thing about your job?

Learning about new things. Even more exciting are occasional "job perks" like going diving, meeting big sharks face to face, getting stung by venomous fishes and all the other little adventures that happen on field trips and while diving. Africa is a really fun place to do science!

James underwater in the Red Sea, 1998. Photo by Dafydd Griffiths.

How should I proceed to get into that discipline (school subjects, university courses and so on)?

You have to take science related subjects at school, like maths, physics, chemistry and biology. After that, you should choose a university course according to what field you want to go it. It's OK to not know exactly what you want to do, but you should have some idea by that stage (like "I want to do something biological/Chemical/physical") so you can choose the right courses to develop your interest. You only start getting really specialised towards the end of the course or at postgraduate level anyway. Computers are increasingly important in everyone's life, and they are very powerful tools for scientists to use!

What sort of person would you look for to employ in your current position?

Someone as obsessed with fish as I am, who shows obvious dedication to their subject. In my current position, (which I'm not employed in as such as I'm a) a student and b) not being paid!) you also have to be pretty good with computers, as besides messing about with fish, I spend a lot of the day fixing computers for various people, helping them out and then doing things like making this website.

What sort of pay could such a person expect? Any job perks?

Hopefully, you would get paid. I don't =0) There are plenty of perks, in terms of "free" diving trips, and the opportunity to learn from other people who know more about fish than you do (up until now, that's a very novel experience!). I get to help look after a really big fish tank at work (~3,500l) which is nice, because I've always enjoyed looking after and watching fish. I also get invited along on some pretty cool field trips with younger students (undergraduates and Honours), which lets me see more of this beautiful country, do a bit of photography, and see fish I haven't seen before.

Why would you encourage people to join that discipline?

To learn more about the world around them, and fish in particular! There's a real shortage of people who are willing to sit down and do "boring" and low paid science - fish taxonomy kind of falls in there; there's a lot of scope for people in this discipline too, as there is still lots of work to be done. OK, so counting gill rakers and measuring dead fish all day isn't exactly fun, you get worthwhile data at the end of it that lets you answer really interesting questions about the fish around you. I think the most exciting thing you could possibly do is find a new species and give it a name, but creating order out of chaos and fixing the mistakes that other people have made is also quite interesting. And meeting 3.5m tiger sharks certainly isn't boring! People always ask me why I don't go and work with computers and earn lots of money - computers are actually quite boring, and I could see myself being rapidly more bored in a computer job than playing with fish!

Money isn't everything in life - it's more important that you really enjoy what you do, and gain a lot from it personally.