009: Mark Losavio - Journey To Becoming A Marine Biologist

Mark Losavio sits down with Todd and Dalton to talk about his journey from being a kid in land locked Kentucky to becoming a marine biologist that has traveled all over the world and a dive club founder. 

We chat about how Mark founded a dive club that is still going today, what it's like studying to become a marine biologist, and of course some of the coolest dives he's ever done.  All that and much more on this week's episode.   Thanks for chatting with us Mark!

Check out cool pics of Mark at work in our show notes on our blog.

Watch The Interview On YouTube

Corrections

Mark had a couple of corrections that he wanted to mention:

• Mark's professor studies ecological forecasting (not climate forecasting).
• Marks professors went on Mission 31 in the Aquarius habitat (not 'Mission 41').

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Transcript

Todd Reimer:   0:08
Welcome the Aquatic Life. A podcast about underwater photography diving an adventure travel. I'm Todd Reimer. And with me, as always, is Dalton Ham. What's so has going but

Dalton Hamm:   0:19
pretty good. How you doing,

Todd Reimer:   0:20
man? Just trying to stay scene and all this covert crazy. Yep, another week of lack down. But the light seems to be at the end of the tunnels for better, for worse places, reopening, but not much. Here in California, we're still in pretty much can't go to any park speeches air so closed. But that's OK, That's OK. We'll continue on just trying to stay sane by doing projects inside and podcasting. Exactly. Speaking of which, we are excited to present our very first guest on the aquatic life podcast Markelis Salvio, who was nice enough to chat with us. Won't you tell people a little bit about Mark before we get right into the interview here?

Dalton Hamm:   1:02
He's a marine biologist and oceanographer, recently graduated and has had a interesting dive life up till now, think everybody's gonna gonna enjoy it.

Todd Reimer:   1:18
His work as studying for his marine biology and brain sciences degrees has led him all over the world to China, to Panama to South Africa. Really, really fascinating guy. I'm definitely jealous of such. A young guy has already been so well traveled and gotten to dive in some of the coolest places. So I think Why don't we just get right into the interview and have a chat with Marcus Salvia? Have a listen. Oh, okay. With us today, we are lucky enough tohave Marquis Salvio, join us is our first official guest on the aquatic life podcast. Hey, Mark, How's it going?

Mark Losavio:   2:06
How do you doing? Well,

Dalton Hamm:   2:08
how's Cove in treating you, Mark?

Mark Losavio:   2:10
Not too bad. Staying indoors, washing my hands.

Dalton Hamm:   2:15
Right? I think I've invested more in soap in the last two months and I have in the last two years

Todd Reimer:   2:21
trying not to go insane here, but so far, so good. Why don't we kind of start off with the typical mark? Who are you? Tell us. Give us a little bit of background about how you got into diving, where that's taking you since since then. And I don't want to give anything away, but want us like high level background of who you are.

Mark Losavio:   2:40
All right. Well, how do you Mark? Um, I actually started diving in high school, and I'm from Kentucky. So I learned in a swimming pool in the nude or check out dives. Ah, place got falling Rock, quarry, quarry. There were no falling rocks. A god, that's pretty cool. I actually learned it was a Christmas present for my mom. Uh, it's awesome. And it was a part of a school club called the Outdoor Adventure Club, which I didn't realize until later was a Boy Scout club, because that somewhere they were doing a trip to Florida for, like, the rial check out dives that I, of course, was going on. Of course, when we got there to Isla Morada at the Florida Sea Bass which is, yep, against the Boy Scout headquarters kind of thing. And I didn't I have no idea. I was never part of Boy Scouts. I don't know any of it. So I quickly joint and have

Todd Reimer:   3:39
two badges. You an Eagle Scout? Now, is that what you're gonna tell us?

Mark Losavio:   3:43
Not quite. OK, so I that was my senior year of high school, and then I went to the University of South Carolina for my undergrad, where I studied marine science and I got there and was pretty shocked that there was no scuba diving club and the school itself is like two hours away from the ocean. But it still it's after. And so I figured there'd be a diving club. So I started one with my friend Emma. We started off really slow with mostly lake dives, a spring break trip every other year. We didn't do a a dive at the Georgia Aquarium with the whale sharks,

Todd Reimer:   4:24
which is pretty cool. Very cool. It's awesome.

Mark Losavio:   4:27
I didn't participate because it was kind of out of my price range. But they gave me a really cool by the same store of the aquarium, what while everybody else is diving

Todd Reimer:   4:35
awesome house so cool

Mark Losavio:   4:36
and did some diving in South Africa when I did an internship on white sharks? Whereas

Todd Reimer:   4:44
so where's in Durban or ah or what?

Mark Losavio:   4:48
So internship was in Mossel Bay, which is like, like equal distant from Port Elizabeth in Cape Town. Okay, so we did some diving there. That's where we did the cage dives and the seal dives was really cool. Uh, and then I did a dive in Cape Town with, like the six Gill sharks in the Cape and the cup for us,

Todd Reimer:   5:08
huh? What was that like? That's awesome.

Mark Losavio:   5:11
It was reason cold. I was wearing too wet suits. Um,

Dalton Hamm:   5:16
you weren't wearing a dry suit.

Mark Losavio:   5:17
No, I I still don't know how to wear a dry suit, like certified or anything, right? With super call. It was so beautiful. Lots of really, like chill lazy sharks. Uh, and the snack on the boat, we were like returning to the dive locker was wings that were chutney flavored and e I was I was blown away by how amazing it WAAS

Todd Reimer:   5:45
shut anyways, is die stack. I'm used to orange slices, man. South Africans

Dalton Hamm:   5:51
used to either mangoes or orange slices. Or, if you're lucky, you might have, like, some little little six pack of Oreos or Nutter Butters or something. Or crackers. Yeah, but it

Todd Reimer:   6:03
was diving with the six Gill sharks. Like they were there. A lot of them, Or tell us about the Duyvil. Quick.

Mark Losavio:   6:09
There are a lot of, um they don't move. Very bastard. Very alarmingly, which I personally like, and it's it's easy to just swim because back then I had this mask that had his like side windows. So it's like you don't have to turn your head a whole lot and it's easy to swim along with your buddy and then slowly they turn into a shark and you don't realize because they're the same size is like a human, and then you have to go and retrace your steps.

Dalton Hamm:   6:40
So while you were in, Ah, South Africa studying white sharks, did you make it to false pay and get to see some of the breaching? Our,

Mark Losavio:   6:46
uh, we never went to false May, but we didn't have to go there because there was just as much activity. And Mossel Bay.

Dalton Hamm:   6:55
Yes, that's one of the things kind. On my to do list is to make it a like false Bayer somewhere where you could get them breaching out of the water and just lay on the back of a boat and get some snaps.

Mark Losavio:   7:05
I'd recommend going to Mossel Bay. They have a cool Well, it's kind of like an aquarium, but it's really just like a giant shark tank pool. I don't have like, really tiny little sharks, and it's attached to this really delicious restaurant. Big Daddy's Girl

Dalton Hamm:   7:22
Maassen. Muscle Bay is

Todd Reimer:   7:23
now on my list. Teoh, down right now! Big Daddy's grilled Recommended.

Dalton Hamm:   7:30
Now, when you got certify, did you get through Patty now A s s I

Mark Losavio:   7:34
So I did my open water through. Now we, um okay, what seems like forever ago. Like I learned with dive tables, no calculators or computers. And then when I went to college, I did my advanced rescue and a whole bunch of different certifications to S s. I come. And then in grad school, I I don't know if this counts, but I I am a a U. S certified diver, so I guess all over the place.

Dalton Hamm:   8:05
Yeah, that's wrong with that. They all they all count.

Todd Reimer:   8:08
That's so let's go back to your undergrad. Tell us more about your marine science underground first and what a marine science major involves and what you typically do with it once you once you get it.

Mark Losavio:   8:20
So first I wanted to say that I was able to go to the University of South Carolina for pretty cheap because of this thing called the Academic Colin market, where you can take your if there's a major that your state doesn't offer at any school like Kentucky. You can take your in state tuition and state scholarships to another school that participates, and my favorite was able to go to South Carolina cheap. It's awesome. And so Marine sciences. It's different from marine biology in that I studied him or like, well rounded oceanography style courses. And if I wanted to set your focus on biology, I could. But we had to take all entry level physics, chemistry, calculus, statistics and then those equal marine science classes. So a chemical oceanography, physical oceanography, zoology and all that. Great.

Dalton Hamm:   9:24
So what do you Ah, what are you going to apply? That Teoh as as a life goal?

Mark Losavio:   9:30
Well, I'd love to get a job, really anything now, but that it helps me get into a really good grant program. Gram, a lot of people I graduated with ended up working with, like state departments in South Carolina, like environmental control from But I What I did was something weird with my degree. Right after I graduated, I worked in the A public health laboratory, but after that I did a year with AmeriCorps with this special program called New England Sides and Sailing, which focused on teaching students in New London County about the ocean.

Todd Reimer:   10:19
It's also fantastic.

Mark Losavio:   10:22
So that's really what I did. And then I went to grad school.

Todd Reimer:   10:24
OK, so yeah, now let's talk about your transition into Gradual. You got your undergrad. You did that that work and and so what did you consider and then and what did you end up?

Mark Losavio:   10:36
So I actually applied to, like, 5000 grad schools? I did not get into a lot because, to be honest, I didn't really have the best grades coming out of undergrad. But I I applied to it, almost got into VIMs with William and Mary, Florida State University. They have really good programs. Hawaii Pacific University and University Quiet at Manila, obviously very good programs. And then I applied to I applied to Northeastern University's program, mainly because the AmeriCorps members get a free application, and it's, ah, pretty reputable program. So I figured, Why not? Like it's free? Yeah, for some reason, worked out.

Dalton Hamm:   11:24
And so what are you getting? Ah, your graduate program. What's gonna be your

Todd Reimer:   11:28
You finish your grad program as well, Right? Okay, So the

Mark Losavio:   11:31
program in it's called the Three Seats program and it's like a accelerated, really intensified marine biology masters. Uh, it's about a year and 1/2 of time, and it focuses on Northeastern University's really, I guess known for their experiential learning, like the undergraduates will take a semester off into a co op, an Internet, a company that their major is focused in. So for the three C's program, what they do is they have you take five classes in the fall, the first fall of your program in Massachusetts and the Marine Station and the hot. And then they take shoot five additional classes in Panama at the Smithsonian Institute for Tropical Research and then three more classes at the Friday Harbor Labs A T University of Washington in Friday Harbor, Washington

Todd Reimer:   12:29
It's awesome. So you got around a little bit a lot of

Mark Losavio:   12:32
travel. And then there's a six month internship that you do your research on and write up a thesis that can take place anywhere in the world

Todd Reimer:   12:40
and what was what and what was yours. What did you choose?

Mark Losavio:   12:43
So I did my internship on outreach methods in China.

Todd Reimer:   12:48
Burger in China

Mark Losavio:   12:49
and Fujian Province of Fujian is kind of across the strait from Taiwan in a tiny fishing village

Todd Reimer:   12:56
called Dong Shod. Cool. You spent time in Panama as well? Yes. So what was that like?

Mark Losavio:   13:03
I was Ah is amazing. Uh oh. I forgot to mention about the program is a big component of the program. Is scientific diving. And so everybody who participates in the program becomes, if you want to like it, not force you. But if you want to, you could become a scientific diver with the American Academy of Underwater Sciences. And so all of the certification dives, the trading dives and the teaching dives happen in Massachusetts. Uh, which is fine, I guess. But again, Yeah, it's cold. And I'm not a fan of the cold. It's pretty, but it's called, but most of the teaching dies in the learning. Like learning how to use the tools that you might use in the real world That happens in Panama.

Todd Reimer:   13:49
Very cool city. Can you tell us, like what again for us uninitiated that don't know much about reading my allergy at all. Anyway, what sort of things do you do is for scientific diving. I assume you carry out research experiments and things like that, but give us a little bit of a flavor. Of what? That what sorts of things you work done during that time?

Mark Losavio:   14:07
Yes, so I guess the primary reason you put dive for marine biology is just to collect data. And there's a surprising large number of things that you can collect eight on underwater eso you can photo identification is probably the biggest thing, which was our first class. For corals, you can do identification trans sex to count and measure like populations of coral or fish. You can take nets down their catch a sample of, say, like plankton in the water column, or, like leave traps down there, algae settlement disks that you can leave down, go back the next year and collect and see what's growing on it. There was one lab where we were actually fishing for as particular species of fish, underwater to capture and then buried, and tanks in the lab

Dalton Hamm:   15:02
for what purpose? Teoh capture and brood.

Mark Losavio:   15:05
So we wanted to observe. This species of fish is called the Hamlet what they like breathe at a specific time of day. They always go out and, like find and made that at a dusk eso we would go out, catch them during the day to put them in tanks, wait till dusk and then record them breeding to see what mating behaviours they exhibit and how successful which behavior is at getting a successful made,

Todd Reimer:   15:31
fascinating That's awesome have their of any any other studies, even that I guess during the time that you were done that were particularly interesting. Even if you didn't do it was known and really fascinating to you that lay people like myself may not know about

Mark Losavio:   15:44
well, so you probably may have heard about the massive coral bleaching event that occurred in 2016. A lot of the research that was covering that did come out of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and it's still ongoing like we still go out there and we still measure how much of a coral reef is still alive. How much of it is bleached. And we compare those numbers to, like previous years that have done that research. And I don't want to say it's exciting to do that. Yes, sad. But it's really cool to like, participate enough

Todd Reimer:   16:17
for sure. Now that is exciting because I mean all you hear about it on. The news is up. There's coral bleaching going on, but there's no numbers behind it. There's no idea of like to be actively involved in an aggregating that data and knowing to what extent and to know the details and the numbers is actually and to be able to be part of producing it, that's that is fascinating. That's great. It's a sad thing. It's a sad fact of again, another aspect of our environment, you know, heading in the wrong direction. But the more we have concrete scientific evidence, the better off we're gonna be.

Dalton Hamm:   16:52
It's awesome. Um, question I was gonna ask you about, you know, to get back. Teoh, your dive club. You started your dive club your freshman year of college?

Mark Losavio:   17:04
Yeah, I think so. I think it was either my feet like the end of my freshman year or the start of my sophomore year.

Dalton Hamm:   17:12
How big of a group did you guys end up having when you graduated

Mark Losavio:   17:17
25 maybe 20 people.

Dalton Hamm:   17:21
Nice. That's awesome.

Mark Losavio:   17:23
And I still so I still get emails. They're still meeting. At least

Dalton Hamm:   17:26
that's also ask if you're still. Are you so active with the group that you graduated with and the group at school Currently Did the dive club continue once you left?

Mark Losavio:   17:38
So the dye club is still going strong. I don't really awesome participate in it that much just cause I'm an old fart, like, just so I'm on the list. Serve.

Todd Reimer:   17:49
But you're the godfather. Do they have a big picture on the wall? You know, painting of you in the background with a big pipe or something? I

Mark Losavio:   17:56
should, you know, maybe one, but I guess I'm really only still in contact with the other people who, like, help me start it. Um, but, you know, they live on all the signs of the country. So we don't Yeah, there anymore. It said,

Dalton Hamm:   18:16
it's that's definitely, uh, one of the things about, you know, graduating you. Everybody tells together their separate ways, and you don't catch up for a few years sometimes, you know, but eventually you all you know, it all comes back around and you catch up and you find your they have ah, you know, time to spend rather be on a five year anniversary trip or something like that For a

Mark Losavio:   18:43
share of where I'm definitely Once I get a job, I'm gonna try and plan dive trip because my one of my friends, well, one of them currently works for Noah and see dives at the National Aquarium in Baltimore as a volunteer. But the other one is like It's awesome. She's a coral reef. Oh, shoot. What did you do? Coral Reef Management and Restoration fellow, Um, something like that. It's really impressive in its in Florida, and she's diving a lot, So

Dalton Hamm:   19:14
yep, absolutely. Florida is a great place to dive. I lived in Key Largo, Um, for a couple of years. That's where where I went through my, uh, my Patty I. D c. Instructor training was was in Key Largo. But another question I have for you was Have you thought about Well, I'm sure you have thought about working for like he said your friend works for No. Have you thought about working for Noah? Or do you want to work for a college or teach or, you know, what kind of what's your goal?

Mark Losavio:   19:47
So I my goal. It's kind of weird again, Um, I kind of like my long term career goal is to really be like a I guess a science communicator. Um, but like on the level of, like Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Bill, I besides guy kind of nice, because I've done a lot of teaching in schools and stuff with kids and Children and which is great. But I I feel like more people than just Children need toe. Learn about science,

Dalton Hamm:   20:22
especially, absolutely, especially the ocean. I think most people tend to have this view of the ocean that they can only see the surface, and they really don't see nothing. Two. Wrong with the surface of the ocean. Right now, there's some waves. It's it's pretty sunset, whatever. But they don't see what's going on below the ocean with chloral beach bleaching and, um, species getting over fish and things like that. So I think what you're talking about would be

Todd Reimer:   20:54
fantastic. So that also sounds like it tied into what you did as your thesis in China, right? Without breach methods.

Mark Losavio:   21:02
Yeah, so I studied the lab I work in, um, he specializes in well, specializes one and climate forecasting, but he also specializes in like, unique methods of outreach on. So he has this virtual reality style outreach method that he has been pioneering, um, and so I and it's been tested on students to see like, Is this more effective than traditional lecture kind of thing? So I took that and did the same studies in China while also looking at how it impacts community adults instead of just the students

Todd Reimer:   21:45
re ableto reached a pretty any conclusions on that to get the Cliff notes version.

Mark Losavio:   21:50
I'm still writing it. Okay, cool. But from what I can tell you now, it's it's, uh, honestly, it doesn't actually seem like that's any better or worse than traditional outreach programs, which I think is good because it's not. It's not a method that everybody has access to. Uh, so you don't have to. Nobody feels like they need to invest in the newest and greatest technology in order to get their point across.

Dalton Hamm:   22:16
So when you were in Washington, did you get to do quite a bit of diving in ah, Puget Sound or

Mark Losavio:   22:25
Yeah, I I don't like the cold, and it was like I understand colder like, easily the coldest I've ever done, and I still did it. There was some. It was less involved with classes at that point of the program. And mawr. If there was anybody on campus who needed help with the research, you can volunteer and help participate, Which I did. And I had my eight mills suit eso I could only stay down for, like, 30 minutes. Uh, but it was a really is, like, gorgeous diving like it's so beautiful.

Todd Reimer:   23:07
So freezing. It's

Mark Losavio:   23:09
so cool. Um,

Todd Reimer:   23:12
what were the water attempts like, Do you remember the average water attempts when you were diving there? Uh, well, part.

Mark Losavio:   23:19
I want to say 42. Oh,

Todd Reimer:   23:22
wow. One dive. I want no part of that one.

Mark Losavio:   23:26
That was a shallow 12

Todd Reimer:   23:30
I guess we can't complain here. A

Dalton Hamm:   23:31
lot of

Todd Reimer:   23:31
weight can't complain in L. A. You know, even when they dive in the summer times here, you know, maybe gets down to the fifties and that's no thanks. And that's to

Mark Losavio:   23:42
called

Todd Reimer:   23:43
it is even with the dry shoot, I'm sure it's much, much better, but it's still not still not of fun experience. But like you said, you get such a different view versus tropical diving, kelp forests and totally different sets of coral. I'm assuming and see life different fish right,

Mark Losavio:   24:03
it's, um it's even, like vastly different than the environment on the East Coast, where it's like, kind of the same temperature, and it's still both of them are dominated by not corals but like algae and seaweeds of plans. But it stills, like so different the animals that you find there and like the environment that like structure of the dives. It's crazy that

Dalton Hamm:   24:29
that probably has something to do with the ocean currents on the Pacific versus the Atlantic because they're coming from opposite directions.

Mark Losavio:   24:39
Yes, right

Dalton Hamm:   24:39
so that's being pulled down on the West Coast is being pulled down from Alaska and around and pulled down. It's being pushed up from Florida and the Gulf, so I'd imagine you get a little bit more structure and a little bit different life and everything

Mark Losavio:   24:56
and the the like that the our country, the way that it, I guess forms into the ocean is shaped differently on both sides. So right, it's such a sharp drop off at Friday harbor lives. It's like the dive masters told me that 30 feet away from the dock is like a 40 foot dive 100 feet away from the dock. is like a 200 foot dies, right? Just like crazy. How that drops off so fast over there?

Dalton Hamm:   25:23
Yeah, sure, Absolutely. Now, did you have any running within the I think the Humboldt squid over there supposed to be really, really feisty. Like they'll play around and try to take your mask off of the end stuff.

Mark Losavio:   25:35
I didn't see any squid, um, we and find a harbor. We didn't go really anywhere far away from labs themselves. For this, we went was to like an island across from us cult Shaw Island. So we didn't really see any big I like swimming creatures, although apparently a group after me did see seals on their dive. And this seals did caressed them. But that's fine.

Dalton Hamm:   26:04
Isn't that always the case? It's always the group before the group after that sees the cool things.

Todd Reimer:   26:11
That's just the way it goes,

Dalton Hamm:   26:13
right? So on your dives, what's Ah, some of the coolest things that you memories that you have rather it be you, ah, particular coral or animal that you had an interaction with or just ah, particular dive. That kind of like sets since in your memory.

Mark Losavio:   26:35
Mm. That's a hard question on. But for our dives in Panama, which were much more rigorous, we did like two dives a day almost every day. It was kind of it. It was crazy. But at the end of the program, you go from the Caribbean side to the Smithsonian Station on the Pacific side. That's on like a World Heritage Site island called Corba. I'm. And so you spend a week there on coy ba Um, and basically all you do is dive because it's so remote. There's no electricity or cell phones or WiFi or anything. Uh, and it's specific ocean diving. But tropical diving, but different than like that, like you might be picturing a tropical Pacific diving might be because it's on the eastern side grab. And so I like every site is fastly different crazy animals and my favorite dies. Uh, that we don't really like to do anymore, Um, but it's my favorite. It's it's called Molly Molly, and it was, ah, high current dive in. That current was so strong that you can't It was like, not possible to swim against safely. Really, you literally had to, like, pull yourself up along the rocks across the reef to see anything which was so much fun, so much fun to me. Just like pull myself up like a rock skipper s nobody else like that dive, though. So I don't think that they are

Todd Reimer:   28:12
back to your gradually many more interesting things about the three C's program that even if you didn't do that's just kind of really jumps out. That is being really interesting about the work they do or this classes and programs they offer.

Mark Losavio:   28:26
It's a marine biology masters, but I I think it's more marine science than biology because all the classes air so interdisciplinary and, uh, and then after the classes, you get to take your six month internship. That is, on the one hand, kind of intimidating cause you have to organize and figure it out yourself when, there, then you get to do absolutely anything you want. Um, so, like a couple members of my cohort, one girl did an internship on lionfish invasion in Bermuda. Another guy did lobster study in the Caribbean shark tagging studies off the Cape of Massachusetts. One girl, uh, discovered a new species of squid in New Zealand. Her described a new species of squid they named after Nicki Minaj most exciting part of the program, but also

Todd Reimer:   29:24
that's hard to beat that

Dalton Hamm:   29:30
that's funny. Um, did you go to any interesting lectures by anyone that you know Weah's divers might consider famous, like Sylvia Earle or any of the Cousteau's or anything like that, are

Mark Losavio:   29:47
I? Ah, wish I know. A lot of my professors were very close to all those people. Um, one of my professors who taught our oceanography class was on that. I don't know if you you probably know this the mission 41 to the Aquarius habitat. They That was like a partnership, I think, between Northeastern and Florida International University or Florida Gulf Coast University.

Dalton Hamm:   30:18
I'd have to look it up to see. But for

Mark Losavio:   30:21
whoever owns the creates habitat, they they were a part of that. So they are good friends with one of the Cousteau's and Sylvie ero.

Todd Reimer:   30:32
Tell us about Dr Ruth Gates. I had asked you if you had any people that inspired you and mentioned doctor with Gates. And so, uh, give it, give us a little bit of information on the work that she did and why she is an inspiration to you.

Mark Losavio:   30:44
I don't really know a whole lot about her. I just know that, um she is a really prominent and success was a really prominent, successful coral scientist in her lab. Was the lab that help the discovery of, I don't know if you've ever heard of, like, super corals, corals that can show resistance, I think, to like traumatic experiences in their environment. And there was like a movie about it on Netflix. They usually take a lot of the three C's in turns on DSO and she just everything I've heard about her. It just seems like a really cool person.

Todd Reimer:   31:31
That's awesome. Very cool for sure. So you do dabble in underwater photography as well.

Mark Losavio:   31:38
So I I wish I back when I started diving. Getting a good picture underwater was an expensive and timely ordeal. Yes, yes. And so I when I did my check out dies of Florida. I got like a crappy Kodak like underwater camera and all the pictures air truly awful, like, absolutely terrible. It's

Todd Reimer:   32:05
already got my starting

Mark Losavio:   32:06
thing I had ever done. Um, great memories. But my mom, seeing my enthusiasm for Christmas, bought me a go pro. Ah, a long time ago. It was one of the first GoPro's, like the the third iteration. It doesn't even hide like of you find there anything, and that's what I still use and no offense, but they're not gonna taking pictures at all. But they're very good at taking videos Whenever I take a 12th video of whatever I'm looking at and then just like, take a snapshot from that.

Dalton Hamm:   32:42
Yeah, GoPro's are, I think, fantastic. Um, if you're wanting Teoh record memories, you know, which is great. I mean, I use, um, Ezam, probably on every shoot and definitely on every dive. I just put one on top of my camera and let it run while I Well, I use my big DSLR to take photos, but yeah, they're they're great. Great little cameras.

Todd Reimer:   33:12
Yeah, So it's hard to go wrong and is the best bang for your buck. You can shoot photos, you can get good video, and you and you have to worry about flooding. Ah, very expensive camera and a very expensive housing. You know, it's it's it's they're cheap, and they do a good enough job. And, like Dalton said that you recorded experience, and every once in a while you get lucky, just like taking photos and generals. You know, sometimes the stars align, you get you get this great shot, and even if you don't, it's okay. It's still good enough to show your friends usually. Absolutely.

Mark Losavio:   33:47
Yeah, I have, like, five million 12th videos just from the last year. And there is there was a camera so that I graduated in December. Okay, And then

Todd Reimer:   34:01
congratulations. By the way, you

Mark Losavio:   34:04
it's a rough time to enter the job market. Yes, yes, I I worked as a t a for the following cohort in Panama, And so I was allowed to use the official three C's camera, which is, um, fairly nice Olympus camera. It could only go to 30 feet, but it's still It was a really good camera, so I took some not too bad pictures on that one.

Dalton Hamm:   34:29
Colonel. That's right. What's your one of your favorite pictures that you've gotten over the years?

Mark Losavio:   34:36
A favorite picture, I think. Probably be, um who just couple months ago in March and Corba took a picture, took like, 500 pictures of this sea turtle that got really up close to us on a snorkel. All right, on. And I did. I did take a bunch of short videos of this mangrove E. I guess many grows forest edge that we were diving around. They're so pretty. Yeah,

Dalton Hamm:   35:10
absolutely. The way to see the root system in the water is really cool. And you get a lot of juveniles.

Mark Losavio:   35:17
Yeah, and it's and that, and I don't know if this is being all over the world. But in that area of Panama, the mangroves air usually followed immediately by like a seagrass bed, which is then followed by a coral reefs. Again, kind of like hit all the great areas. One. That's club. Yeah, so it makes a really great picture opportunities.

Dalton Hamm:   35:40
It's not. It's not quite that way. Everyone mean because there's a ton of mangroves in the Florida Keys. Um, but you usually you'll get the main groves and then you'll get some some sea grass and stuff and in some sand. But usually you got to go out a bit to get to the good Ah, the good corals and in the keys.

Todd Reimer:   36:05
So, yeah, definitely, definitely, very lucky to get the triple threat. They're all run one right next to each other. That's also

Mark Losavio:   36:11
nice. Plus the water is warm.

Todd Reimer:   36:15
If it makes a big difference, that's awesome. So what's next on your list for either for research purposes or for just for fun? Where would you What's next on your list of where you'd like to go for diving,

Mark Losavio:   36:29
where I'd like to go for that guys, Um, I don't know. I'm just I've been so satisfied. It has two years heart mad. Want

Todd Reimer:   36:40
That's underst. That's understandable.

Mark Losavio:   36:43
I would like to get a dry suit. Um, because I really want to really appreciate the areas around me. They are the colder water diving I think can offer stuff that I am not really willing to look into, right.

Todd Reimer:   37:03
I I think we're all in the same boat dolphin in the same way we were so bad. We should be have so many more dives log for local dives here because there is so much stuff to see in Southern California. But we just don't want toe deal with Thea seven mil wetsuit with a five mil hooded vest and and deal with the cold temperatures. It's just it's not appealing, so we just need to get a drink. We keep saying

Dalton Hamm:   37:27
and dry suits are so pricey. Tom looked out at the scuba show.

Todd Reimer:   37:34
Yes. Yeah. So yeah. So, uh, bear ran a contest for that one year. Um, and you basically take a picture and post it on instagram and you're entered to win the problem that they didn't realize that there's no cell service at the scuba shows and no one was able to actually post any pictures unless you remembered after you left the convention to go outside and posted. So I was I was only one of four people that posted it. So I'm like, there's no way. And heck that they're gonna actually honor this contest because the entry fee was there was only I kind of. They're only four people that posted. And sure enough, they honored at the gate. They gave me a custom dry suit and my wife entered, which, because there's multiple items, there's a dive watch. There was a wet suit to dry suit and something else. My wife got a wet suit from them for free because no one, she was the only one that posted a picture. So much props Teoh bear for I would have canceled that if I was in their boats. I would have just canceled that program because of lack of entries. But they didn't the honored it and I ended up with the school dry suit. So I don't have I don't have an excuse other than I want to go diving with my buddy when we go, and he hasn't gotten his dry suit yet, so But we're long story short of the same way we need. We need to get our dry suits up and running. Should

Dalton Hamm:   38:53
be doing more

Todd Reimer:   38:53
so we can go and appreciate our local diving a lot more than we dio

Dalton Hamm:   38:57
I m Now, how far along are you in your What's your highest rating Certification for diving?

Mark Losavio:   39:05
Um, I don't know Is And I don't know of rescue or night trucks or advanced is higher.

Dalton Hamm:   39:13
Uh, risky is probably your

Todd Reimer:   39:15
higher. Okay. And you and I try to do his own thing on the side. Kinda. Yeah,

Dalton Hamm:   39:21
yeah, but I know that, um, a lot of the wet suit on dry suit companies, if you are a dive professional or, um, professional diver, which with your degree and stuff. I think professional diver would definitely fit into it. I never give some pretty deep discounts on their dry suits, like half off or something. Wow. So just something toe to think about?

Mark Losavio:   39:51
Well, our university, our program, got really lucky with a random donor who I don't know. But they donated a large sum of money with the purpose of purchasing rental gear for students because, like one of the stipulations of accepting the programs that you either had to, like buy our own gear, which is kind of like that of a block for some people. But we were the first class to be offered rental gear. Renno BC's Ronald um, Regulators Reynold computers on their really nice like way, way nicer than anything I would probably ever even need to use. They just donated more money to have Reynold dry suits. Now, uh, which is really nice, but that you have to and take a class in order to be allowed to use it

Todd Reimer:   40:46
as about T Kenya in general, in one credit class, you can get the oh, that's awesome that I think that's great of that donor toe. Offer that to the students. That's fantastic

Dalton Hamm:   41:01
and, you know, just Ah, another thing I'm sure, are our listeners. I would love to know about how many dives do you have under your belt?

Mark Losavio:   41:09
So before I started the program, I had, like, maybe 40 after the program, I think I have, like, 120.

Dalton Hamm:   41:21
Nice. So the program. But you put it in some dive? Yeah. Nice,

Todd Reimer:   41:27
polycystic. Outside of diving. Any other adventurous activities other than scuba diving that you like to fill your time with?

Mark Losavio:   41:36
Well, I do. Before, before I went, did the program, I wouldn't say that I like to hike. Oh, but I guess at some point along the like life history of the school, it's become a tradition to hike across like Panama. Uh huh. At the end of your time in Washington, you spend almost a week in Olympic National Park hiking up the mountains. There

Todd Reimer:   42:10
is also no that must have been amazing.

Mark Losavio:   42:12
So which it was it was nice, was beautiful and honestly not that difficult in Washington. But the hike in Panama There's one volcano. It's the tallest peak in the country, and it is a killer like Do

Todd Reimer:   42:27
you remember the elevation like how much climbing you actually end up having to do.

Mark Losavio:   42:32
I want to say that it is at 11,000 feet on and you start at 3000 feet. Oh, that Zika six hour. We'll hike on.

Dalton Hamm:   42:45
That's just to get to the summit.

Mark Losavio:   42:47
Yeah, it was that skirt. You start at 11. At night so you can get to the top and time for sunrise.

Dalton Hamm:   42:54
So you did that at night? Yes. Wow, that's impressive.

Mark Losavio:   42:59
Again. I did twice,

Todd Reimer:   43:03
right. That's also that's fantastic.

Dalton Hamm:   43:06
So what else can you tell us about Thea? Is it the A a U s your, ah, student Ambassador, School Ambassador?

Mark Losavio:   43:14
Uh, I'm I'm a student ambassador for the program. I'm a diver for a U S. Which is It's It's kind of like a a dive organization that allows you to participate in and run scientific diving kind of outside of the like, OSHA regulation umbrella. And so, in order to be in a US diver, you need to be a member of an institution that is a member of a US which is usually like zoos, aquariums in schools, or I guess, police departments. No, not police departments. Uh, just is only things okay. And I actually tried to start in a U. S. Program at the University of South Carolina because we were asked by a professor to collect data for him. Um, but it's kind of a really long process and was longer than my time there. So

Dalton Hamm:   44:14
okay. And how is it being, ah, student ambassador for your school?

Mark Losavio:   44:23
And it's not really as, like, official as it sounds. It's just, um if a student is interested in art school, they have no way real way to contact current students because they're like a planet. No, I and like the people who will usually be in charge of briefing potential students, is usually with them on the other side of the planet. And I'm here right now, so

Dalton Hamm:   44:49
that's called. It's I think it's awesome that you're giving back to your diving community to your school community.

Todd Reimer:   44:57
You know how how big the program is. The

Mark Losavio:   45:00
program is capped at 20 people. Okay? Because any more than that underwater would give me a heart

Todd Reimer:   45:07
attack. Of course. Yeah,

Dalton Hamm:   45:09
I'm I'm assuming the you guys have to do some additional safety protocols and stuff. Do you guys have to have toe. You guys have toe, Have a safety diver. Anything with you when you're you have such a large group underwater.

Mark Losavio:   45:26
So for that first investor, one of the classes you take is it's called diving research methods. And that's the class that turns you into a scientific diver. And when you are in training you, I think I'm not totally clear on the rules. Um, but you need tohave a certified a US diver with you, Um, for I want to say 12 dives. And then you are a certified scientific diver for the first depth, which is 2 30 feet. And then what? I get certified to 60 feet. You have to have 12 more dives that reached that depth with another a US diver who was certified to that depth. Okay, I'm in terms of safety. There isn't dive safety officer that's always around. She's usually actually leading the dives and a dive program assistant who is there if she's not. And I think there are a US instructors level certification that can take that place. Um, other, like standard stated of like dive recall. Always have. We always dive with flags. Each buddy bear kind of thing safety sausage, that stuff. Hey, they don't like to take chances. You

Todd Reimer:   46:50
can imagine. So if you're, ah student in high school and you're thinking of marine biology or lying to know about marine sciences, marine biology, any thoughts where they should start off?

Mark Losavio:   47:02
Uh, I don't What I did is when I turned 16 I got a job at my local pet store. Uh, because it was it was like an exotic pet store where they had salt, water, fish. And so that was my like, fastest beeline assumes I turned 16. What right? The best way to apply for a job. Got a fish tank. That was pretty much my exposure before going to college right on. But honestly, you don't you don't need to have You don't need to, like, be a relative Jacques Cousteau, like, enter into the marine sciences like anybody can do it at any time. Right? That was one of the most interesting things about my major at USC was how many people of, like so many different ages were taking the one at one courses with me.

Todd Reimer:   47:53
We're on eso. That's cool. So you don't have to be Ah ah expert, professional diver or have any experience in the world. If you just have a fascination with that, there are opportunities and programs out there for for you, regardless of how much experience that you've had up until that point.

Dalton Hamm:   48:11
Now, if I were a ah, a novice diver or just, ah, random student, you know that's thinking about, you know, wanting to learn a little bit more about either oceanography or Marine biology. Is there anything that you would recommend as far as, like, books or documentaries or something to just pick up to see if it's for me?

Mark Losavio:   48:39
Mm, I mean, obviously.

Todd Reimer:   48:42
Keep Lucy right. Watch deeply. See thinking, obviously, SpongeBob into the blue. Yes, there's a

Mark Losavio:   48:52
I mean, there's a ton of good documentaries like on Netflix that they're interesting, but I don't know if they would really like there. That's the interesting stuff. It's the stuff that gives on, right, like what? I worked for two years studying like Kobe pods. That's not something you'll ever see on TV, of course. Yeah, but it's not. I wouldn't say it's necessary. Representative of marine science. You can, and people do go into study all events, stuff and the stuff that people study. There could be a world renowned expert on one species of snail that will appear in a nature documentary. All right, in that person's life is less scuba diving and washing that snail do its thing and mawr reading about 5000 articles, things that might be related to the snail with things that eat this now or that that's nail eats and how that interacts and then writing paper and they're talking about it approaches. I'm all about it. Yeah, I'm into that. A lot of people

Todd Reimer:   49:55
and a lot of people are exactly

Mark Losavio:   49:56
some people aren't.

Todd Reimer:   49:57
Yeah, so I mean, but that's the thing is the people we're talking to are the what? You know, you have a statement, people that just are all about the adventure. But then you have the people that are very scientifically minded that those types of things are what fascinate them. So

Mark Losavio:   50:09
I feel like every diver likes I mean, I know we all do the same thing, which is go down underwater and look at stuff. But I feel like everybody still does it in their own way. Like I love to do stuff underwater. I love to fiddle with things I love to like, read temperature monitors, Rollout transact tapes like hammer things down like I love to do things amongst a coral reef like I but that just, like, drives my boat. Other people don't like to do anything

Dalton Hamm:   50:41
right. There are some people that just like to float around, float along and look at the pretty things We're

Todd Reimer:   50:47
not even just like toe and float along, All right? Exactly. Yeah.

Dalton Hamm:   50:52
And other people like to get in the water and just swimming as fast as they can to see how far they can get down the reef before they on. That's one of the great things about what we do is that there's something at the end of the day, we're all getting in the water and we're all, you know, enjoying it and taking something back with us.

Todd Reimer:   51:11
What are some of the fun things that you get to work with that aren't Ah, uh or even if they are just said that you like toe have with you underwater?

Mark Losavio:   51:19
Honestly, the most useful item, like the most commonly used item I have, is my catch bag just to carry everything and probably things like ph. Meters and temperature beater.

Todd Reimer:   51:32
Yeah, it's

Mark Losavio:   51:33
like that.

Todd Reimer:   51:35
Not something that Donald I usually bring with us. Wonder that's that's

Mark Losavio:   51:39
cool. Oh, I like to have my slate. Yeah, because sometimes I'm not good at my non verbal communication. And other people are really good at making sounds, but I cannot. I can't make noise like I can't scream or talk through my rag up. Other people can, like other people can make full words through the regulator. And I am not able to do that. I don't know why. I don't know what I can't do you and not make sounds so I know you're not alone.

Todd Reimer:   52:08
Yeah, you're no. Yeah, the same way. It's more who is pretty much all I get. So unless you have a slight with you it, Zo Or if you're just pointing a look a look Z, that's about all I can do. So I get it. This has been a really fascinating conversation. Really appreciate you taking the time to meet up with must mark what I tell you. Why don't you tell us what's next for you? Kind of alluded a little bit. You're looking for work and you give us some information. But yeah, what are the next steps for? You wait out and see where this just thrown in a coma and thing, and

Mark Losavio:   52:45
I've been applying to a bunch of jobs, but nobody's probably in the mood for hiring right now. There aren't even a lot of jobs like popping up these days, so I am. I'm also like on call part time with our universities outreach department, where they like. We'll go to schools and, like, talk about the ocean and they host tours on campus and stuff, which obviously I'm not doing anything off because none of that's happening. So when things start to go back to normal, I can kind of go back to that and feed myself for a while while I look for a like a real job.

Dalton Hamm:   53:22
Now, are you wanting Teoh get involved with zoos are aquariums? Or do you have Ah, are you just like a broad net that you're tryingto get into? Is there anything specific that you would like? Teoh.

Mark Losavio:   53:39
It's a pretty broad net, mainly because I don't really necessarily know what I don't have, like a lot of like other people when they say they want to be a marine Ecologist. There are marine Ecologist that they can Google be like. Okay, he took these steps to get a job. Um, but like I don't really have a clear path towards, But I want my career to be so I'm just kind of like looking out for any opportunities that I think I'll be good at and will be good for me. Um, Susan Graham's, the government, state government, anything. Schools. I will say that aquariums and zoos er like notoriously hard to kid jobs that so probably will be investing too much time.

Todd Reimer:   54:28
Why is that? Why are they hard to keep? Job said.

Mark Losavio:   54:32
It's just because there's usually just one aquarium in a huge area, and because there's such popular places to visit and work at that, they don't ever really need to do. Oh, like a rigorous search for hiring, usually like a vast volunteers,

Todd Reimer:   54:53
about two seconds

Dalton Hamm:   54:54
to get a lot of a lot of volunteers.

Mark Losavio:   54:56
And so it's. And obviously, if there's a job opening, they're gonna pick the guy who is qualified and has actually been working for you for two years over someone who has it. No.

Todd Reimer:   55:07
Make sense. I had assumed it was gonna have to do with the fact that most people are willing to volunteer their time to do what? What? You know, you would expect to be a full time anyways.

Mark Losavio:   55:16
Yeah, absolutely. Well,

Todd Reimer:   55:19
hey, Mark. Thanks for joining us. I think this has been fantastic insight into something that most of us regular divers don't really get to see. It's really, really fascinating. Thank you so much. Can you let us know? Do you guys have you have any social media that you can tell people where they can find you are reach out to

Mark Losavio:   55:37
him? Yeah. I have Twitter, I guess. Just the Savio in my last name and the letter M

Todd Reimer:   55:44
You have some of those GoPro shots on their that so we can check up

Mark Losavio:   55:47
for sure. I I've actually been meaning to dump a whole lot of my videos into the Internet

Todd Reimer:   55:53
cycle. Well, hopefully we're looking

Dalton Hamm:   55:55
forward to

Todd Reimer:   55:55
Yeah, but open looking. Maybe, uh, if you don't mind, we can throw some either links to or maybe can give us some to put on the show notes for our blogged to show some of your work everything.

Mark Losavio:   56:05
I'll try to find my rare Jim's

Todd Reimer:   56:07
awesome. That's great.

Dalton Hamm:   56:10
And any time you're in, ah, Southern California or anywhere we're gonna be at and, you know, like Florida usually were warm, warm water divers as well. You know, you're always welcome to come diving with this,

Todd Reimer:   56:23
But thank you for third. And we will give you a camera to play around with when you go die. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks, guys. Thanks a

Dalton Hamm:   56:34
lot. We'll talk to you later. Mark.

Todd Reimer:   56:37
Team, I talked to

Mark Losavio:   56:38
you. It's yeah.