Although I've had the Island Living expansion pack for several years, I just never gotten around to trying the career of Conservationist. Now don't get me wrong, my Sim has done plenty of cleaning up around the island and improving the environment, but never went so far as to make a career of it.
The career has two tracks, Marine Biologist and Environmental Manager. I also didn't realize that the job can be done "from home" allowing the Sim to do other tasks during the day. So this allows a Sim to live in another World and still get some of the activities done by using a PC from home. However, there are some tasks that require the Sim to travel to Sulani World to accomplish a few of the tasks, such as collecting Ocean Samples.
Some things to consider when starting this career. Logic skill is needed and some of the career tasks, such as research will help the Sim develop their logic. Some of the from home tasks are obscure, like "Spray an Invasive Species." It suggests that the Sim to "Survey Wildlife...." but, just what does that mean? How does a Sim find the Wildlife that can be surveyed? It turns out that Wildlife means to have the Sim Survey floating algae, plants, fishing holes, and pretty much anything else that pops up with a Conservation Icon and the "Survey" option when an object is clicked on. This is not the same as Survey Ocean Wildlife. That will involve swimming out to a buoy. Also, the Take Samples from the Ocean is not so straight forward. You may need to click around for a while on the water around the island to find a spot that a sample can be taken. The closer to the shore, where the Sim can wade, is usually where the sample can, eventually, be taken. The bottle of samples and research data will go into the Sim's personal inventory for use later.
Research data can be sent to the Research Center to improve performance or sold to the Nature Channel for simoleons. The bottles of samples can be analyzed which turns into research data. On occasion, the sample will shatter, making it useless. Collect more Ocean Samples. I have noted that some areas of the ocean won't bring up the option to take samples, so the Sim may need to hunt around to find the best area to gather those samples.
Just be aware, that some of these tasks can take a few hours of Sims time, so be sure to take care of needs in and around these tasks.
The quirks that I have encountered involve Survey Ocean Wildlife n Mua Pel'am. I have searched for "How to Survey Ocean Wildlife." It claims that the Sim needs to Survey Coral, Schools of Fish, or Sea Turtles in the ocean of Mua Pel'am after the area is "Thriving."
Although at this point, my Sim has improved the Ecosystem of the Island's lot to Thriving, by cleaning up debris, combing the beach for trash, cleaning up the bio-hazards by the volcano, and chasing the flocks of seagulls, there is never an actual option to survey the ocean's wildlife by clicking on schools of fish or coral. Have yet to see any wild turtles swimming. Have encountered the hatching baby turtles racing from the sands into the ocean, but the "survey" option essentially indicated that there was nothing noteworthy. That only happened once, during a full moon.
There is a buoy in the shallow waters that provides an option to Survey Ocean Wildlife, but even when the survey task ended, the note claimed, as follows, "Swimming around and surveying proved very fruitful! Sim was able to record some important research data to study." This also provided Research Data into the personal inventory. Yet, sending it to the Research Center did nothing. It neither improved the Performance level, nor did it accomplish the Work from Home Assignment for the day.
Essentially, the Work from Home Survey Ocean Wildlife in Mua Pel'am task is not something that a Sim can accomplish, for now, based on all the attempts throughout the course of this Sim's career. The "earnings" for that task basically are lost for the day. The work around I have decided to use, to at least earn simoleons is to collect research data and then sell it rather than send it in for research purposes.
On the plus side, the other deep ocean buoy that allows the Sim to Survey the Ocean Floor is totally functional at this point. If used as part of the Work from Home assignment, the Sim will get both research data and a collectible Underwater Photo worth 200 simoleons in addition to the performance wages and credits.
