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We moved to the Big Island of Hawai'i in 2007, my wife of 20 years and our now 15 year old Conch (who was born when we lived in Key West where I worked with aquaCorps and Key West Diver).
Diving has been part of my life since 1956. Back then my dad was an archaeologist. We saw Cousteau's Silent World and he got the idea to attempt to recover Babylonian artifacts from a barge that sank in the mid 19th century at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. We were already avid freedivers. He bought two tanks, two regulators, and a copy of the Science of Skin and Scuba (several later editions of which I was honored to contribute to), and we learned how to use scuba. The planned Fertile Crescent dives never happened, but I continued to dive on a recreational basis in lakes in New York, the New England Coast, North Carolina, Florida, and California.
In high school I joined a group that styled itself, "Beta Oceanographic Research Inc." It was a scientifically minded dive club that had an agreement with the California State Parks people and the Pt. Lobos administration so that, in return for mapping and doing some biological and geological baseline work, it would have unlimited access to the park.
While at university I became involved in the Research Diver Training Program. I took the 100 hrs. Research Diving Course in the spring quarter, was invited to do underwater research in Central America over the summer, was an Assistant Team Leader (AI) in the course in the fall, and a Team Leader (Instructor) for the next course. I remained active, both teaching and conducting research until I received my degree in Zoology. My senior honors thesis, an outgrowth of my term project for the Natural History of the Vertebrates course (last time I checked, the only perfect score ever given for that assignment) was on the foraging behavior of Brant's Cormorant. I spent over a year free diving in the area of the Monterey Breakwater to observe the birds. Yes ... I was an underwater birdwatcher.
I spent five years with the National Underwater Accident Data Center where I worked with John McAniff investigating diving accidents. A major oceanographic institute accepted me into its Ph.D. Program. There was no formal research diving program there so, in 1975 I attended a two-week NAUI ITC at the University of Michigan run by Dr. Lee Somers. I returned to my home institution and began teaching faculty, staff and other students the 100 hour course I learned during my undergraduate days. To make a long story short, I wound up as the Diving Safety Officer, had a chance to do some interesting things and make what where, I hope, some small contributions to the diving communities I belonged to.
My certifications come from many institutions of higher learning, and include all of the levels up to and including a 190 foot card. I also hold endorsements for Diving Instruction, Surface-Supplied, Decompression, Variable Volume Dry Suit, Blue Water, Saturation, Nitrox, Mixed Gas, Rebreather, and Submersible Pilot.
Living under pressure is something that I enjoy, I was an aquanaut (underwater habitat based saturation diving), a deep submersible pilot and I ran an on-deck saturation system with a personnel transfer capsule.
In the scientific diving administration arena: I helped found the American Academy of Underwater Sciences, served the AAUS as a national officer and helped draft its standards. I served on both the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and National Science Foundation Panels on Shipboard Diving Safety and I was invited to provide testimony before a number of governmental groups including the Department of Labor, the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere and the Vice President's Committee on Governmental Deregulation. I've been asked by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, the National Geographic Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be part of their peer review process.
In the early days of technical diving I was an editor for aquaCorps Magazine and Program Chairman for the Tek conferences. I was elected a National Fellow of the Explorers Club and an Associate Member of the Boston Sea Rovers.
I staffed and directed many NAUI ITCs, served on NAUI's Technical Advisory Group and in the mid 1980s, at the request of NAUI's Executive Director, I revised NAUI's standards. I was awarded NAUI's highest honor (Outstanding Service/Continuing Outstanding Service Award/Outstanding NAUI Affiliate) four times.
I continue my interests in underwater science; I teach a few private programs each year and write. I am currently working on a book addressing research diver training from both an historical and practical perspective. I serve on our local school's School Community Committee and on committees that are developing Voluntary Recreational Diving and Wildlife Interaction Standards for Hawai'i.
I have in excess of sixty publications covering topics in: diver(ing) safety, training, administration, equipment, and technology; underwater science; ship operations; deep submersible design, operations, and administration; statistics; and animal behavior. Wiki4Thal (talk) 21:30, 26 December 2011 (UTC)
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