Michael Bollinger | Marine Scientist
About Me
Family
The early years my passion for Marine Science was driven by yearly trips to the beaches of Maryland and fishing in the back bays. Growing up in south-central Pennsylvania, a pipe dream of getting into marine science was viewed as difficult by the many teachers that reviewed my career path exercises. I kept submitting these career research assignments entitled "marine biologist" over and over. Fast forward, present day, I'm truly living the dream.
I was able to meet another marine biologist with a non-traditional career path and start a wonderful family. We've followed the marine science bug together from Texas, to Florida and finally to North Carolina.
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scientific diver for Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute also in Marathon doing coral and sponge restoration. I had a brief stint in St. Petersburg, FL diving on the molluscan fisheries scallop team diving in <6' of water doing scallop surveys. Finally, I'm currently a NOAA diver out of the NOAA Beaufort Lab in NC. We dive to do fish or coral surveys and deploy camera systems all over the US EEZ.
Scuba Diving
I began diving in the spring of 2009 and have not turned back since then. Diving has taken me from the brisk, murky waters of upstate New York and Central Pennsylvania to the warm Caribbean waters of Belize, the Bahamas, Curacao and the Florida Keys. The ocean has always facinated me and I thought the best way to experience it was to get a little wet.
The bulk of the diving I've done recently is actually for science or work. My masters thesis work used my diving skills heavily as well as the work that I did as a commercial diver for Captain John's Dive Service in Port Isabel, TX and the Divemaster work for Captain Hook's Dive Center in Marathon, FL. Hundreds of my dives were as a
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Ultimate Frisbee
Everywhere I've been Ultimate Frisbee has been there for me. When it wasn't already available in the community, I garnered enough support to play some pick up with friends.
I started playing Ultimate during my time at Penn State for the Penn State B team. I worked my way up to Penn State A for my senior year by playing in the State College Summer League (SCUL) and for the University of Southampton (Skunks) during my semester abroad. I was fortunate to be a member of the Skunks when we went to UK Nationals where were finished 6th in the UK.
Since my undergraduate years, I have played in community leagues in York, PA (SUPA),
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McAllen, TX (Tlacuaches), Marathon, FL (Stoned Crabs), and Beaufort, NC (Lookout Ultimate). I currently help to organize the weekly pick-up game in Beaufort and host an annual tournament, The Backstreet Invitational.