Scott Benson
SCOTT BENSON currently works in the Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, which is part of NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration). He is the lead researcher or Principal Investigator for leatherback turtle research. Scott is based in the Monterey Bay region because this area is a well-documented foraging ground for leatherback turtles. They migrate across the entire Pacific Ocean from Indonesia and come here to consume jellyfish. So the turtles are seasonal constituents of the local ecosystem, though Scott is based here year round.
Scott was born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Southern California with his family when he was five. He grew up in southern Orange County (Laguna Niguel/Dana Point), back in the day when Interstate 5 was under construction and the coast road was the only route to San Diego. Dana Point was a truly small town then, smaller than today’s Moss Landing, where Scott’s office is located.
Scott came to Monterey Bay in 1994 to do graduate work in marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Prior to that he worked for NOAA for ten years. He spent 4 – 6 months every year at sea counting whales, dolphins, sea birds and sea turtles as an Identification Specialist. In that capacity, he was sent around the world identifying marine species from on board ships, most of the time in the eastern tropical Pacific between Hawaii and mainland USA, and Latin and South America. But Scott was also sent to the Atlantic Ocean, South Indian Ocean, and other locales. During that period he spent a lot of time at sea. Some field surveys went on for four and a half months, before they returned home again.
Scott usually worked for six months of the year doing survey work. He was also a beach lifeguard for the state of California. Scott reminisced that each time he came back from his adventures at sea, he had time on his hands and a pocket full of money, a rarity to have both at the same time! As a result, he spent his time-off traveling the world – Asia, Himalayas, South America. Scott explained to people he was front-loading his retirement.
