About Me

Diver out of Southern California

I like to share pictures and videos of interesting creatures I find underwater and find their scientific name best I can. Feel free to call out a misidentified one I'm still not 100% with all my findings.
I'm always looking for that new species I haven't seen or recognize and taking pictures and videos are the most fun way I memorize them.

 

Artificial reefs, Piers, Breakwalls, Wharfs, Harbors, pretty much any structure we put in the ocean I want to dive on, study it, and understand what grows down there and why. I see this as one of the new habitats growing in an ever expanding modern world. As the worlds population is exploding with more and more people, major cities are putting immense pressure on the marine environment. It should be a priority of human kind to study and understand the marine world in order to best utilize its resources and promote ecosystem wide growth in these habitats.

I also enjoy the simple act of taking videos when I dive. I started with a gopro like anyone else with an outdoor hobby, that turned into camerawork and an actual skill I can sink some passion into. At the end of the day its simply a fun game of mine to find a new creature or new habitat I can look up. I'm a nerd for a new species or interaction so if I haven't seen it, its new to me.

PC: Michael Langhans 2018

I went to UC Santa Cruz where I studied Marine Biology and received my B.S. During my time there I worked with many labs, most of which focus on Kelp Forest Ecology, as well as lead recreational dives for the schools Scuba Club (Scuba Slugs) all around Monterey and Carmel. I truly got my start diving in Monterey, which with its often rough conditions, definitely shaped me into a strong and competent diver. I've now dove in many different places in many different conditions. None of which have been as difficult as Central and Northern California diving. Warm water diving often makes me feel like a dolphin since my introduction to diving was thick wetsuits, heavy weights, low visibility, and rough surge. I still love it all the same and will always look back fondly on my first bubbles in Monterey Bay.

I then resided down in Santa Barbara working out of UCSB with a couple labs and citizen science groups and diving on my own time looking for more places to explore. I even wrote a paper on one of the videos I captured that got published. I volunteered mostly in order to get my dives in and try to get out and clean up some trash on the sea floor at least once a week. Often I found myself diving under Stern's warf with a mesh bag in order to collect dropped treasures. I found over 20 phones, couple wallets, toys, drones, fillet knifes, urns (I left those there), and even a gold ring one time. It was a great spot since I could drive my car and gear all the way to the end, suit up, and just climb the ladder down the side and start diving. It was shallow too, only about 5 meters, with visibility maybe 2-3 meters on any given day. It Likely kept me sane during the pandemic when I just needed some nitrogen therapy while I worked on my application to graduate school in Japan.

In 2021 I got accepted into a graduate program at Maizuru Fisheries Research Station (Kyoto University). I have also taken an interest in field observations of small benthic fish behavior, such as gobies and blennies. I use my camera and tripod to record long intervals of interactions. I really feel like I'm staking out a target species.  I am pursuing a masters and ultimately a PhD. 

This whole journey has been a total leap of faith but hey, whats life without just sending it every once in a while. I've played the safe game before and just got bored. I've played the party game and got burnt out by the childish atmosphere. Fuckit, I'm gonna play my game.

"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” -Plato, The Republic (always more to learn, right?)
"The sea, once it casts its spell, hold one in its net of wonder forever" -Jacques Cousteau

 "In the long run, this stuff sort of evens out. Are some of these paths better than others? You bet. Is there only one path to take? No, no, Nanette." -Milton Love 

Life isn't about making everything comfortable, its about fixing the few things that are unbearable. -Me   (oooooo so enlightened ooooooo) 

“When your heart is in love, you're floating weightless. When you lose that love, you have to re-enter the atmosphere. And it can get pretty rough. Bouncing off one molecule onto the next, ripping through them at such a pace that they ignite and explode. Until you find another heart that's doing the same thing, that's landed and cooled and then you start to float again.” - Jim Carrey

"We are the music makers... and we are the dreamers of the dreams" -Arthur O'Shaughnessey

 

~Hunter