July 2019
Okay so my sim isn't a mermaid, but no matter which of the buoy's I went to the survey ocean floor option never registers for this task. However I have found something that works for her...and might just work for mermaids? So when you go to Lani St. Taz go to the empty Island lot. Between the Island lot and the Waterfall/Volcano lot if you look in the shallow water you can see a group of three coral reef's. Watch these reefs and when it starts to get dark you'll start to see fish come out, and then schools of fish will appear. When these schools appear hover your mouse around on the middle of the three coral reefs until a gear appears beside your mouse. When the gear pops up you should be able to click it and suddenly be able to survey the ocean wildlife.
And poof your sim will go and survey those three coral reefs, at least that's what mine does. I'm sure there must be more of these random spots were at different times you can survey ocean wild life, but this is the only one I've been able to find. I've been able to test this one out more then two times and can safely say it's a safe bet, at least for normal sims. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work for a mermaid as your not snorkeling...hope this helps everyone.
hopefully I described it well enough for everyone to find it as I can't do screenshots right now 'sigh'
July 2019
I have found the same thing as @toramonger. I was having trouble fulfilling this task, although my sim is not a mermaid.
I spent a full day trying to survey ocean life for a job task. Hover over the task and it gives specifics (can't remember all of them now but I know coral, turtles, and schools of fish). Even though I had the option to survey ocean life at the buoys, the task wouldn't clear even if the sim got a successful "found some interesting info" message. After reading the task instructions, I found some turtles swimming around and was able to directly click on one and "survey ocean life" successfully.
So - try finding interactable coral, schools of fish, and turtles swimming around in the ocean. The interaction at the buoys is not required for the task, and in my experience it didn't count as completed (I didn't have any fish or anything around the buoy at the times I tried).
July 2019
Good Luck
Crin
I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.
Important Threads
July 2019
Same I just took that branch because it felt like it made the most scene for a mermaid to pick the sea
August 2019
My merman also has to snorkel for his level 8 marine biologist career. How can such a very mermaid-suitable career have tasks that mermaids can't do? This is very awkward!
August 2019
In order to complete the "Survey Ocean Wildlife" task, you need to click on wildlife out in the ocean, not on the buoys. If you hover over the task, the pop-up states to survey turtles, coral or fish. Not all of these are available at all times of the day, so you might have to search around a bit, but the task will register complete if you survey these specific items.
Coral:
Fish:
Turtles:
My Conservationist sim is not a mer-sim, so he can click on complete the task on the buoy. It has never cleared the job task, though. The only way he can clear this job task is by surveying the particular wildlife as pictured above. So, being able to do the task on the buoy is not really preventing mermaids from doing the task. (It's actually saving you from wasting all that time trying to get the task to clear )
Now, it may be a bug that the "survey ocean wildlife" task can't be completed from the buoy (by any sim). It's hard to test, since it's so random on whether you get that specific task, but I've never gotten that action to complete from a buoy. It either shouldn't be there, or it should be there and should complete the task when accomplished.
The other issue - If asked to snorkel, and a mer-sim can't snorkel - that seems like a bug, and only non-mer-sims should be asked to snorkel.
Hope this helps!
August 2019 - last edited August 2019
Mermaid conservationists can now successfully survey wildlife in the ocean.
Fixed in Patch 1.54.120
New thread for snorkeling issue:: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-INPUT-IL-Mermaid-Conservationists-can-t-complete-snorkel...
Good Luck
Crin
I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.
Important Threads
August 2019
Excuse me for not opening a new topic, but my conservationist has been asked multiple times to snorkel, so I believe that still belongs on a bug list. And personally I don't think a whole new topic is necessary for something that is so much tied in to this topic as this is.
August 2019
Good Luck
Crin
I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.
Important Threads