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Rusty Day is the founding director of MANTA and Executive Director of the organization. Mr. Day was raised in a seafaring family from the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina. He grew up on boats, with a love of the ocean and an inquisitive nature, making the decision to pursue marine biology quite natural. He went on to earn his BS in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then decided to take his passion for exploration and adventure on the road and to sea, traveling and sailing his way through the culture of Europe and the natural beauty of the Caribbean. |
Mr. Day returned to earn his Masters in Marine Biology at the College of Charleston Grice Marine Lab. He has worked as a marine scientist at several state and federal government and university labs, and has a wide diversity of expertise including marine ecology, fisheries biology, conservation biology, environmental and analytical chemistry, and aquatic pollution and toxicology. This experience ranges from sampling using shrimp trawls and gill nets, to conducting underwater ecological research using SCUBA diving, or using lasers and mass spectrometry to unlock chemical information in calcified skeletons of marine animals. He is currently a Research Biologist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the Hollings Marine Laboratory, holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor at the College of Charleston Grice Marine Laboratory, and will be awarded his PhD this November from the University of Pau. He has received several awards both nationally and internationally for his research on sea turtles and has more than ten scientific publications in top journals. In addition to Mr. Day’s scientific accomplishments, he also holds a Master Captains License and Sailing Endorsement from the U.S. Coast Guard, has logged 1000’s of miles under sail, and is certified as a Master Scuba Diver Trainer through the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). If you can’t find him working or playing on the water, then chances are he’s off traveling. Overall Mr. Day presents a unique and diverse combination of qualifications and experience that are ideal for the mission of education and research endorsed by MANTA.
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Phillip Dustan is a Professor of Biology at the College of Charleston who has been involved with coral reef research and tropical conservation throughout his professional career. In addition to research he has been active with non-governmental organizations such as Friends of the Earth, Wildlife Conservation Society and The Cousteau Society. He is an experienced SCUBA diver, underwater photographer, and sailor. Over the years Dr. Dustan has taught Ecology, Biology of Coral Reefs a number of study abroad field courses including Introduction to Tropical Ecology in Peru and Bali, and was a visiting instructor for MANTA in the BVIs in 2012.
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My name is Liv Wheeler, I am the Dive Safety Officer (DSO) and an instructor for MANTA. They call me the flying Hawaiian, though I was born in California. I grew up in a small town outside of San Francisco with my folks and three brothers. I attended Humboldt State University where I majored in Wildlife management. When I was a Junior I studied abroad in Costa Rica. This is where I got my first certification. Diving was so easy and free that when I got back to Humboldt I joined the dive club and worked toward a minor in scientific diving. It was during this time that I truly discovered the
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magic of being underwater. California is very cold and different than Costa Rica, but here I found the color in silence, my own breath and the Pacific Ocean. Things are never what you expect. And I get to look forward to that every day when I go diving. After graduating I moved to Hawaii, worked my way up to being a scuba instructor, and have worked at a local dive shop on Oahu for the past four years. Hawaii has many unique features, some of which I have had the pleasure of visiting while assisting on sailing research tours such as Molokini Crater, Niihou and Lehua rock. I have also been fortunate to have job opportunities in other areas of the world. Recently I spent three months working in Belize on Glover's reef which is an atoll of the main barrier reef. All these experiences have contributed to making me a well rounded dive instructor.
For me, my favorite part of diving is opening someone’s eyes to a world that they never knew existed. It's one thing to see something on discovery channel, but it's another to actually experience it. I find when people discover diving their perspective of the world changes. The ocean is very important to our daily existence, and the amount of destruction that it has endured is frightening. We need as many young minds as possible to become educated about these challenges and spread awareness so that we can save what is left. I have started a monthly clean up dive in my own dive community to bring together divers who want to make a difference. I call this diving with a purpose. I believe that differences are made on an individual level, and if we take responsibility for our actions, and how they affect the environment, it will cause a ripple that will spread to others causing them to question their impact on the environment. MANTA is a unique program that provides the opportunity to study the ocean, learn to dive and sail. These are interactions with the ocean that most people never get. It is my pleasure to contribute to these experiences, and I believe that after our adventures on the water together we will all become divers with a purpose.
Mahalo for learning about my diving experiences. I look forward to sharing some with you soon! |
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