Turning Passion into Purpose

from Undercurrent magazine 

I’VE BEEN CAPTIVATED BY THE OCEAN SINCE EARLY ADOLESCENT YEARS.

I can still remember sitting in our family den glued to the TV watching ex-Navy frogman Mike Nelson surfacing to the Argonaut after tangling with dangerous villains underwater. “Sea Hunt” was both in­spirational and entertaining. Nelson’s underwater adventures were nothing short of “otherworldly.” Five or so years later my new weekly television highlight became “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” Never missing an episode, I dreamed of someday meeting Jacques Cousteau and going on the Calypso. The former I did; the latter, alas, I did not.

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Growing up in southeastern Penn­sylvania’s Delaware Valley, we lived less than two hours from South Jer­sey where my father docked his 36- foot (10.9 m) sport fishing boat. His recreational passion was saltwater fishing and our family spent nearly every summer at the Atlantic shore. After completing a Coast Guard Auxiliary seamanship course in my early teens, I ran my dad’s boat on a regular basis, trolling for bluefish and bonito. But I have to admit I didn’t take to fishing the way my brothers did. Before long I added surfing to my ocean repertoire and I was con­sumed by my newfound passion and made trips to North Carolina, Cali­fornia and Baja, Mexico.

In the late ’60s our family summer vacations took a tropical turn, from Cape May, New Jersey, to Southamp­ton, Bermuda. It was there I traded in my surfboard for a mask and regu­lator and discovered my consum­mate ocean endeavor: scuba diving tropical fish had a profound effect on my being, and more than 40 years later I still remember my first resort course dive on Kevin’s Reef off the South Shore. I was spellbound at my first sight of stoplight parrotfish, queen angelfish and a host of other tropical beauties.

Back at the University of Miami for my final year, I completed a scu­ba certification course. Then I made a push to become a certified “Re­search Diver” at Miami’s Rosenstiel Marine Institute where I success­fully completed a grueling train­ing program. Not long afterward, my parents thoughtfully gave me a Nikonos II camera for my birthday. I couldn’t wait to get back to the reefs in Bermuda. My newly discovered underwater world was captivating, yet I was so lost for words to ad­equately describe to others what I saw. My camera became the device that would enable me to share my underwater adventures with family and friends.  After a taste of several elec­tive ocean engineering courses at the Rosenstiel Marine Institute, I completed a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and de­cided I wanted to live in Bermuda. The ocean was calling me; I simply wasn’t ready for a button-down-shirted, 9-to-5 office job. After land­ing a job as a diver for a small ma­rine construction company, I spent an amazing year doing construction work in a wet suit instead of a busi­ness suit.  While there I devoted every bit of my spare time familiarizing myself with the camera and totally immersed myself in every photogra­phy book and magazine I could get my hands on. One day I noticed an ad for Brooks Institute’s Underwater Photography program. I applied, was accepted, and off I went from Ber­muda to Santa Barbara, California. The phenomenal Brooks program, with its planned assignments, pool exercises and ocean dives, allowed me to rapidly advance my skills, helping me form a solid foundation for my underwater photography.  Heading back East, I discovered the thrills and challenges of Jersey wreck diving, entering photo con­tests and giving slide shows at dive and photography clubs. As the reali­ty of making a living and paying rent set in, I decided to test my engineer­ing degree and technical skills in the marketplace and landed a really good job that eventually took me to Texas and put me on a challenging career path. I still managed regular diving adventures in the Caribbean to further refine my photography skills. In 1977, Skin Diver maga­zine published my first article, “The Sleeping Sharks of Isla Mujeres.” This boosted my confidence and whetted my appetite for more under­water explorations. My underwater photography had become much more than just documenting my journeys and marine life encounters. I saw the imagery as a way to help others better understand and appreciate the underwater realm.  I found myself publishing articles and photos in various national div­ing and wildlife magazines, giving seminars at diving expos, present­ing at dive clubs and leading ad­venture trips to exotic destinations around the world. I was also fortu­nate to land numerous location as­signments with scuba magazines. All the while I balanced this with a highly satisfying “day job” man­aging large industrial projects for a global engineering/construction company, and with my wife, raising two children. Living in Houston, I accumulated thousands of images from the northwestern Gulf of Mex­ico and the Flower Garden Banks.  In 1998, I completed a trimix cer­tification course in Florida and im­mediately dived the USS Monitor. A few years later I added dives on the Andrea Doria to my logbook. My view of adventuresome assignments in the diving realm was wide-rang­ing and I was always open to new challenges. More recently I complet­ed a full cave certification in order to safely enter and photograph a deep cave in Del Rio, Texas, for a maga­zine photo assignment. My passion for diving was like no other outdoor activity I ever experienced. Through the years I occasionally used my photos to make ocean-re­lated presentations at local schools. Much to my delight, most audiences were both enthusiastic and eager fomore. In the late 1980s and early ’90s I volunteered time for the Gulf Reef Environmental Action Team (GREAT), a local environmental-focused organization. GREAT was founded with the purpose of pro­tecting the Flower Garden Banks. In 1990 we placed the first mooring buoys at these reefs to protect them from anchor and chain damage. The first moorings were installed two years before the reefs became feder­ally protected as our 10th national marine sanctuary.  In the early 2000s, I participated in the Flower Garden Banks Na­tional Marine Sanctuary’s Natu­ralist Program. As a volunteer on the live-aboard dive boats, I along with others gave presentations and interactive lectures to the diving guests on the why, the where and the how of the sanctuary; for exam­ple, the basics of coral biology, and how to be a more environmentally conscious and responsible scuba diver. The premise for the Natural­ist Program, as it is for many oth­ers in the same genre is simple: To get people to care, dive responsibly and conserve, you must first edu­cate them so they can understand and appreciate.  

Diving and Serving  There are special people among us in the scuba diving community who think in terms of “giving back” right from the start, but for many of us, this concept evolves over time. I mean seriously, between family, friends, work, exercise and recre­ational dive trips, it can be difficult finding extra time to volunteer for anything. But for many of us, as we mature and achieve many of our im­portant personal goals, we find that the door to volunteerism is open wider than before. When preparing to retire from my corporate job a few years back, I planned on having more time to devote to volunteering. So, in 2011 I applied for and was accepted as a council member on the Flower the sanctuary. The volunteers that make up the FGBNMS advisory council represent recreational div­ing, diving operations, commer­cial fishing, recreational fishing, research, education, conservation and the oil and gas industry. Two examples of recent recommenda­tions made to the sanctuary su­perintendent by the FGBNMS ad­visory council are the boundary expansion plan for the sanctuary and the disposition of the gas plat­form (HI-A389A) located inside the boundary at the East Flower Garden Bank. In May 2014, as cur­rent SAC chair, I participated in a three-day collaborative summit with sanctuary chairs at the other 12 sanctuaries and our national monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Participation in SAC has allowed me to not only be a stronger advocate for the north­ern Gulf of Mexico’s only national marine sanctuary but to be a more effective champion for the ocean.  There are endless ways to be­come an advocate for the environ­ment. Whether your passion is coral reef protection, sharks, dolphins, a favorite fresh or saltwater locale, or some other water-related issue, consider making a commitment and get involved. Donating even a small amount of money or time to your fa­vorite cause will make a difference. Volunteer for an established marine or wildlife-focused organization or if you prefer to operate independently, use your photography, video or pre­sentation skills to share your passion with others. Start with family and friends and then move along to dive clubs, civic and church groups and, of course, local schools. Impress our youth with what you know about the ocean and freshwater environs and you’ll be amazed at their thirst for more information about our fasci­nating underwater world. Diving can be more than just a fun activity. It can be fundamental to making our world a better place.