Chad King
CHAD KING is a Research Specialist employed by the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which operates under the auspices of NOAA[1]. Chad notes that he and his colleagues are all given this generic job title, but perhaps it is appropriate as he feels like he’s a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, which he thoroughly and completely enjoys. He’s not interested in being painted into a corner, doing one thing only for his entire career.
Chad likes to dabble, be informed, experiment and learn about many of the disciplines and subjects within the field of marine science. He was hired to work with GIS – geographic information systems, making maps, doing cartography, and conducting spatial analysis, as well as doing research diving.
Chad has specialized in coastal kelp forest ecology for most of his career, diving up and down the California coast, including a lot of exploration along the Big Sur coastline, working with the state of California counting fish, invertebrates and algae when the state was creating Marine Protected Areas.
Chad was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina. His dad was in the military, at Fort Bragg, California at that time, but his mother did not want Chad born on a military base. His family moved to San Jose, California when he was 8-months old, so he considers himself a native Californian.
As a kid Chad wanted to be a paleontologist, a marine biologist or a doctor. But when he was in elementary school, he had a very distinct fear of the ocean. Every time he went to the beach, he was unable to bring himself to go into the water past his waist. The fear of the unknown was too strong, and he was scared of what might be out there. Not just sharks, but anything else.
However, Chad also had a natural curiosity for things and how things work. So he figured one way to combat his fear was to understand it. And then he really started to get interested in the ocean and started diving in to understand it. At that time the Discovery Channel was just starting, and Chad began studying Mutual of Omaha and Jacques Cousteau films. Then he fell in love with the concept of exploring the deep as well as coastal oceans.
Chad got his Bachelor’s degree in 1995. He worked on his master’s thesis down in Baja California studying a non-geniculate algae called a rodolith and its association with a little sea anemone. Chad wanted to understand their interactions and how they worked together. Though he does note it was a great excuse to go down to Mexico and scuba dive and drink Tequila.
After getting his Master’s Degree, Chad decided he wanted to go for his PhD. However, the professor he wanted to be sponsored by, John Pearse, was retiring the following year. So instead of school, Chad ended up taking a gap year and paying off his student loans. But one year quickly turned into four. Chad says it was easy to get used to the paycheck.
The field he was in at that time was commercial real estate. He was doing IT and support, and a lot of the brokers were trying to get him to get his license to start working alongside them. That’s when Chad realized, however, he wasn’t going over to the ‘dark side’.
Chad also had gotten a lot of encouragement to pursue what he loves, and he realized he wanted a professional degree, though not necessarily a PhD. He was very interested in attending Moss Landing Marine Labs (MLML). He applied there and got accepted working under Jonathan Geller, an invertebrate zoologist.
Chad came to Monterey in 1999 when he began his graduate work at Moss Landing Marine Labs. He was then hired by the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG, now CDFW[2]) in Monterey and moved to the city of Monterey in 2000. In 2002, he got a job with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
So his childhood interest turned into his passion and he stuck with it. Chad says, “I got lucky with my job.” He’s been able to scuba dive up and down the coast and around the world, and now he’s doing some pretty exciting deep-sea research.
Chad continues to follow his path of interest, and emphasizes that it’s working out really well. Over the last four or five years, he’s been put in charge of the Sanctuary’s deep-sea research, mostly because of logistical reasons, but recently it’s turned into a lot more than that. Even though deep-sea research is not his area of expertise – Chad’s more of a ‘Caltrans[3] Director of Deep-Sea Research’ – he says it’s been great. He’s very excited and pleased with this direction, as his team has been making all sorts of amazing discoveries!
Chad has been at the Sanctuary now for seventeen plus years, and he’s found himself sliding into whatever position has needed to be filled. Sometimes he’s been back doing IT. He’s created an app for Android and iPhones, which encapsulates all of the photos surrounding him in his office, and thousands more. There are now over 5000 photos free, online on a website[4] the Sanctuary staff have developed. Chad also does video production, data analysis, writing papers, deep-sea research, and continues to work in kelp forest ecology. That’s why he loves his job. There’s something a little bit different each week or month.
[1] National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[2] California Department of Fish and Wildlife
[3] California Department of Transportation
