Staff Bios

Captain Ken Nichols - Founder

Born in Napa, California Ken left there as an infant. He was mostly raised in San Diego and remembers going to the beach and "Boogie Boarding " as his favorite activity as a young boy. He played and excelled at soccer but gave it up in High School because it conflicted with surfing. The ocean always tugged at him and many classes at school were missed because surf was up. On graduating from Mira Mesa High School in 1987 he found employment at one of San Diego's finest restaurants and worked there happily for eighteen months. Happy with his job but feeling complacent, Ken joined the United States Marine Corps in 1989 in the hopes of instilling initiative and discipline. Serving as an infantryman based in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Ken was deployed to the Gulf War where he earned a Combat Action Ribbon. "I would be hard pressed to do it again, but the most valuable lessons in my life were learned in my experiences in the Marines."

 


The number one lesson was the beauty of freedom. "I think that once freedom is taken away from you, you never treat it the same." This tremendous belief in freedom is what has driven Ken to fight for causes of human rights, ethics, and ecology ever since. After leaving the Marines Ken was employed by Greenpeace. Proving to be highly effective in communicating ecological issues he was one of the most successful fundraisers in the in the history of the San Diego office. In 1993 Ken had a life changing experience when he became a certified scuba diver. "I knew with my first breath underwater that I would become an instructor." In 1995 Ken moved to Hawaii where he obtained his instructor rating. A year later they started "Flippers Scuba" which is now "Deep Ecology." More than just a desire to work as a diver his biggest goals in business is to improve the area where Deep Ecology operates and to compel other dive operations to do the same. "I believe it is our highest obligation as business persons who derive our incomes from the oceans to protect them in every way we can." - Ken Nichols

Ken with Dr. Peter Singer who is currently Professor of Bio Ethics at Princeton University. September 1, 2001.

"All the arguments to prove mans superiority cannot shatter this one hard fact, in suffering the non-human animals are our equals."

Dr. Peter Singer - Taken from the New York Times Best Seller "Animal Liberation."

 

 

Captain Ken Nichols | Pat Johnson | Captain Juan Oliphant | Captain Christopher Lolley | Captain Paul Bradbury | Daniel Morse | Annie Petrasch | Andy Haberman | Antoinne Lum | Jennifer Raymond | Brad Danielson | Jennifer Homcy | Jade Berman | Main Page

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