Renowned diver and ocean advocate Captain Wayne Hasson has been sharing his love for the world’s waters for decades, and he’s coming to Citrus County to continue sharing his passion.

Hasson will be speaking Sunday at the Friends of the Crystal River National Wildlife Complex’s annual meeting and public seminar, hosted by the Friends of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge.

The public is invited to attend the Friends’ free meeting, which will be from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 8831 W. Bradshaw St., Homosassa.

Hasson will speak at about 2:15 p.m., following presentations by Friends President Tom Gotterup and Refuge Manager Joyce Palmer, of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

“I’m going to entertain them, tell them what I’ve been up to and hopefully get people inspired,” Hasson said Wednesday.

Hasson said he wants to get people motivated to spread the excitement of what the waters’ underwater bounties have to offer, particularly for local youths.

As president of the Oceans for Youth Foundation, Hasson said his mission is to solicit volunteers to help further introduce marine studies in the classroom.

For two years, Hasson and the Oceans for Youth Foundation have brought over 7,000 certified and prepared volunteers to public and private schools.

“They don’t even talk about marine science,” Hasson said about the lack of the curriculum in schools. “How do children learn about the ocean and how to protect the ocean?”

“These presentations are trying to inspire them to look in the ocean one time, and they might become an advocate, someone to look after the ocean and be a voice.”

Hasson has been working with People to People International to take divers to a treasured reef off the southern coast of Cuba, at an archipelago called Jardines de la Reina, or Gardens of the Queen, named by its discoverer Christopher Columbus.

Safeguarded for years under the former rule of Cuba’s late Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the 75-mile-long “garden” and its protectors can teach the world about proven reef conservation efforts, something Hasson wants to teach.

“It’s a beautiful area, like nothing else in the Caribbean,” he said.

Hasson will also talk about his work on the board of the Sea of Change Foundation, which has funded a variety of ocean-saving projects, like satellite cameras that help with apprehension of shark poachers, and groups that raise coral on trees to rebuild reefs.

Beginning his diving career in 1967, Hasson did off-duty scuba dives in Vietnam while serving as a U.S. Marine for 10 years. He became a dive instructor in 1973, certified several hundred students and how trains dive instructors himself.

Starting in 1984, Hasson has been showcasing spectacular Caribbean dive sites for over 20 years, while operating his Aggressor Fleet, or luxury live-aboard dive ships, in the Cayman Islands.

Many of Hasson’s earlier dive, ocean and wildlife initiatives began in the Cayman Islands, with the foundation of Cayman Islands Petting Zoo and the installation of mooring fields at dive destinations.

He was also project manager over the purchase and sinking of a Russian destroyer at Cayman Brac for future reef development.

Hasson, now a Naples resident, is also no stranger to ocean videography, which is now his main focus for various media companies, like BBC Wildlife, National Geographic, Newsweek and the New York Times to name a few.

Over the past 30 years, Hasson has worked with filmmakers and actors such as James Cameron, Robert Urich, Leslie Neilsen, David Hasselhoff, Howard Hall and Bob Talbot, contributing to films and shows, like “The Abyss,” “Jaws II” and James Bond’s “Never Say Never Again.”

IMAGE: Captain Wayne Hasson

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