Brian Phan

BRIAN PHAN is currently employed at Monterey Bay Diving in Sand City, CA as a scuba diver and a technician for scuba divers.  He works on a lot of different gear, including regulators, tanks, buoyancy compensators, and dry suits, plus he does repair. Brian is also a commercial construction diver, where he does work underwater on the wharf using such tools as pneumatic drills, chain saws, and torches.

He is currently Vice President of the American Cetacean Society, Monterey Bay Chapter. Previously, Brian worked at the Monterey Bay Aquarium as an ambassador. He’s also been a naturalist on whale watch boats and taught students diving at California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB). Last year, Brian went to the Caribbean to do research on social foraging in coral reefs.

Born was born in San Rafael, Marin County, CA and grew up in Novato, the town over.   His father loved the ocean and was a fisherman in Vietnam. When he immigrated to the United States, he took up recreational abalone diving. There were no catch limits at the time, so he went diving often and took all of Brian’s seven siblings diving, except for Brian because he was the youngest.

Well, being the youngest was part of it. Brian’s siblings thought he could learn how to swim if they pushed him to the deep end of the pool. But because of his low body fat, he sank. He says he pretty much drowned, and his sister had to jump into the pool, pull him out, and resuscitate him. After that experience he was afraid of the water, but respected it. So Brian hung out on the beach, while his dad and siblings went diving.

He always knew he wanted to scuba dive, but didn’t learn how to swim until his sophomore year in college, with the help of a bunch of friends. And it wasn’t until he was in college that he asked his dad to go abalone diving with him, and his dad said “Yeah, sure”.

Brain grew up next to the ocean as a kid, went diving as a young adult with his dad, and then came to Monterey to go to school at California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB) where he got a degree in biology (evolution and organismal ecology).  Most of his studies were marine biology related, and while in school he did a lot of research with rockfish.

But why Brian became a marine biologist has a little different twist. He decided when he was in second grade to study marine biology, because his crush’s parents were marine biologists, and he thought he could impress her and she’d like him. Of course, he hasn’t seen her since, but his fate was sealed, at least figuratively, ‘with a kiss’.

Brian came to Monterey because he knew that CSUMB had a good marine science program. He showed up for orientation, went to the Aquarium, hung out at Asilomar Beach, and fell in love with the area, and he’s been here ever since.