I was fairly decent student coming up.

I wouldn't say I was spectacular, but I did, have a fairly early knack for biology.

The biological sciences just sort of drew me, and, like to understand how mechanisms work and for that, you know some people like to, you know, take things apart and fix the and then end up being engineers.

I wanted to know how mechanisms in animals worked, how we functioned, I always had a fascination with, ecosystems how everything knits together, how things are designed to, to work in unison in space and time and in nature.

And, we got in at practice some educational presentation this morning and used a little bit of gas.

But we've got a cleaning driv coming up in about 25 minutes, so I'm going to make sure that the ladies have the breathing gas to make it through.

They're cleaning the.

as a youngster, even though we were around the water quite a bit fishing or playing I didn't actually learn to swi until I was a little bit older.

and decided that I was going to take that scuba course at Tennessee Tech.

And I can distinctly remember the first time I knelt underwater in the shallow end of the training pool, and took a breath off of a regulator.

It's like a core memory for me that will be forever etched in my mind.

Is this is where I need to be?

This is what I need to be doing.

So I guess Lauren's got it.

You're going to break first and then come up and swap places, and you're going to have time to practice.

You're going to choose cigar.

Have of course, as I progressed and able to get out in open water, I have these a bit of a slide show snapshot series of of times underwater.

The first time I was near a shark in the ocean, the first time I was, able to see, the striations in the rock work in a cave in Florida.

and then, gathering data underwater, working on, different science projects they're all just distinct notes throughout my career.

The last 30 whatever years that I've been diving.

when you step off a boat or whatever structure or walk out the beach down into the water.

But when you get in the water and go below, the first thing I notice is complete silence, and it isn't.

But that's what it feels like because you're used to all the sounds up here and and you hear the wind when it blows and the trucks over there, or the boats and the birds and the people or whatever, you're around and you step under the water and that's gone.

there is a little bit of a difference diving, in the open environment versu diving in an aquarium exhibit.

Physics is physics.

So in terms of the science of diving, the way pressures interact with us, the way our breathing gas, and equipment functions, all of that is identical.

The environment is what makes it interesting.

When you step off the back o the dive boat into a coral reef, you see the bubbles that you made from from jumping in, and then you see the fish typically scatter because you've jus startled them at the aquarium.

When we enter the exhibits, we enter very slowly because we don't want that to happen.

And then in many of our exhibits where we hand feed the fish, instead of them scattering from you, they come directly to you.

And it it takes a bit of time for a new aquarium dive to get used to that sensation.

We're not accustomed to to that in the open water.

Hand ist Max.

Max.

Klingt gut.

Magst du mir?

Die Werke des Spiels vor Gab es Cesar Valentine oder Kurt Heinrich oder Jerome?

He's run the program really well.

He keeps tight reins on making sure we're hitting our marks with, remaining active in our dive.

And we have certain amount of diving we have to do, to mee the standard to remain active.

So he's really, well suited, I think, for what he does very well suited in addition to the volunteers that we have, as part of the dive program at the aquarium, and those volunteers come from all walks of life.

in terms of staff, paid staf that dive as part of their job, all of the fish biologists dive as part of their job.

Some of the biologists on the force side of the husbandry department dive as part of their job.

my job as the manager of the program Chris and I, as instructors, our primary focus i to make sure everything that has to happe underwater, is done so safely.

And everybody has the training and the skills that they need to do it, and then to give those tools to people regardles of what their position might be.

If if part of that jo is to do something in the water, we facilitate that.

Having someone running our dive program that also can read what's going on from the biology side is invaluable.

And having said that, you know, as I've mentioned, the way he runs our program is one of the premier programs in our industry.

we simply could not maintain our, habitats without being able to get in the water.

Anyone who's kept, a fish tank at home understands that you've got to, go i and scrub the algae off of the the windows regardles of what it is that we're doing, though, that guest engagement at that interaction, is vital to what we do.

Being able to see a young child's eyes light up because they know that somebody is underwater in there with those big sharks, those little sparks, those little, moments of enlightenment that happen when you're 4 or 5, 6 or 7 years old are wha turned into creating the next, marine biologist or the next environmental, steward that's championing what we are all about here at the aquarium.

So those those moments are, I would argue, equally as important as maintaining the exhibits for the health of animals.

Life as we know it o this planet has to have water.

So I hope what almost everyone gets, everyone gets coming through the aquarium, if we all do just a little bi to try to reduce our pollution and and do what we can to make sure our water sources stay healthy, then we can all make a big difference together.

I come to work every day, excited about what I get to do, who I get to interact with.

if we're developing a new exhibit if we're looking into caring for a different animal, if I'm meeting a new group of volunteers that have just come into the program, if I'm teaching a class, I don't know how anyone would work at a facilit like this and and become jaded.

And, you know, it's only been 30 years.

I surely I've got that many more ahead.