Category: Marine Biology
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Crush Depth: Adventures with Scientific Submersibles
“What’s your depth?” echoed down from the surface radio, unanswered for the third time in a row and sounding increasingly desperate. It was 2002 and I was riding inside the scientific submersible Delta, heading towards the seafloor off Anacapa island in an area known simply as the “footprint,” a deep-water fish, coral and sponge hot spot…
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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love College
College, the eternal rite of passage. It stands before us as the ultimate challenge of our lives. We go, we conquer, we go on to great things. Or at least that’s the story. But does college make a difference? It is just another institution, a step along the way, one of many things we “must”…
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Find the Kraken! The Search for Giant Squid
The idea of the Kraken appears in Melville’s Moby Dick in 1851; played a major role in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in 1870; and appeared as the Watcher in the Water in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, lurking in a lake beneath the western walls of Moria. The truth is…
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Living Mr. Holland’s Opus: My Life as a College Professor
When I reflect back on my life as a marine biologist, as a college professor, I’ve had a wonderful life. I have always loved the ocean and as a marine biologist I couldn’t have a better job. But something was missing. Something important. What is the bigger story of my life?
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Chasing the Wild Abalone: Confessions of a Field Biologist
To be honest, I love abalone and have always been fascinated by this most unusual of snails. In college I truly began to “chase the abalone” which led me to become a field biologist. So these are my confessions; some of my adventures while chasing abalone. Things I normally wouldn’t admit to but looking back…
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How I Became a Marine Biologist: My Transition from Surfing
It all boils down to one emotion: passion. That’s how I became a successful marine biologist. I was passionate as a surfer and I translated my passion for surfing and love for the ocean into marine biology. It wasn’t planned, it was actually quite serendipitous, and I have never regretted it. And it all started while hitchhiking.…
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Eight Experiences that Honor the Forces of the Ocean
While watching the new version of Point Break I was fascinated with the concept of the Ozaki Eight: eight ordeals that honors the forces of nature. So based on the concept discussed in the film I set out to develop my own eight experiences that would honor the energy and power of the ocean.
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Peril on the Sea: Nautical Nightmares
As a marine biologist and surfer I have spent a lot of time on and in the ocean. And while surveying the shore, riding waves, scuba diving, or being underwater in a submersible, I have developed a great respect for the sea. She is all-powerful, magnificent, unpredictable, inspiring, and terrifying all at once. And there…
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Are Animals Conscious and Does it Matter?
Many people hope that some day we may meet an intelligent being from another world. Hollywood tells us this stranger will come flying down in a spaceship, and will look a bit like us. Most importantly, he’ll have a mind like ours and we’ll figure out how to communicate in a few hours. But maybe…
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Island in the Stream: the Timeless and Haunting Beauty of Santa Cruz Island
A Haunting Beauty The first thing I noticed was the quietness. Standing on the cliff at the west end all I heard was the wind blowing off the ocean, the waves crashing on the shore, the gulls screaming in the air, all mixed with the smell of the sea. No cars, no trucks, no sounds of…