I had the great honor of speaking at the Aquarium of the Pacific as a part of their lecture series called, "The First Wednesday" program. Getting the timing right on when to schedule the talk was tough as i spend most of my time in the field, which is a fancy way of saying, goofing off diving. We finally agreed on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022 which gave me an 8 month window to prepare from the first point of contact.

Doing talks like these are extremely important. They allow me to justify my "work" and to share the experience with people that might not ever dive or kid's etc. and experienced divers alike. All jokes aside, i find that doing these types of talks are not only my duty as an ocean lover to advocate and introduce people to our oceans inhabitants but to do it in a way that they understand. Connecting people to the unknown, giving them an understanding of what they see before them and hopefully encourage them to care for the oceans in the process.

I was also able to use portions of my book "The Blackwater World" during my talk giving the public a sneak preview of what that will be like as well, which was also very exciting.

In my belief system, we are ALL connected in someway. Discovering those connections is part of the human experience but it isn't exclusive. Animals that roam our planet above and below are just as much alive as humans with the same spirit of life and the will to survive, infact even more so. 

I was lucky enough to have photos taken during the talk in the AOP's Honda theater. The theater has a huge screen and seating for 300. Tickets were "Sold Out" online but the head count was aprx. 178.

Special thanks to everyone that attended, to my sponsors, Kraken sports, Sea and Sea, Retra and of course the Aquarium of the Pacific and to Emma Bodota and Crystal Blue Resort staff and my incredible dive team.

The You Tube link is below if you would like to watch the entire video, in my opinion, the video quality is much better than the live version.