by Ruby Cayenne

The ocean can touch you somewhere deep if you let it. It is one thing to love the ocean but another thing to let it beautifully consume you. On the coast of Northern California resides a man who deeply cares and worries for the world’s oceans. He spends his days by the ocean in moments of freedom and teaches all he can about the ocean in moments of learning, as a professor of oceanography at Cal Poly Humboldt. Daniel O’Shea has not only let the ocean be a part of his life, he has made the ocean his life.

O’Shea grew up in Redwood City. As a child in the 1960s, his mother made it a priority to be by the ocean. They would frequently go to Half Moon Bay, or Santa Cruz on special occasions. “We just had pieces of styrofoam and we’d ride the waves and goof off,” O’Shea said.

As a child, O’Shea began sailing at Half Moon Bay, first at camp and later with friends in high school and college. “Sailing is quiet, other than the water splashing on the sides of the boat. So, it’s very peaceful,” O’Shea said. O’Shea moved to Humboldt at age 17 to attend university and grew fond of the place’s easygoing and sustainability-based nature. 

O’Shea began surfing and it caused him to realize he was very curious about what existed and transpired in the waters beyond the shoreline. “My favorite spot to surf is Agate Beach up near Sue Meg Park. That was the first place I surfed. The night before I had a dream I stood up and caught a wave. I was out the next day and paddled into a wave, I was thinking about that dream and caught the wave,” O’Shea said.

This experience made O’Shea think deeply about manifestation and intentional actions. He wanted to expand his focus on the ocean and searched for an opportunity. “Then, my partner at the time brought home a piece of paper that said research assistant wanted,” O’Shea said. 

He was hired for the position and was able to pursue a graduate degree while working on oceanic research simultaneously. From the deck of a ship, he began mapping the ocean floor outside Humboldt Bay. O’Shea discovered that the bay was once much farther out to sea than it is now, further confirming existing models of sea level rise over the last 20,000 years. 

O’Shea eventually transitioned to teaching, and for a time, taught simultaneously at College of the Redwoods and Cal Poly Humboldt, formally Humboldt State University. “That was getting to be too much, so I stopped teaching at CR and I’ve just been at Humboldt. I have plenty of classes here and I love working with the students and going out to sea,” O’Shea said. 

“He is such an integral part of the department. He goes above and beyond to help us improve the program and make it a good place for our majors,” Christine Cass, Oceanography Department Chair said when describing O’Shea. 

A former student of O’Shea’s, Otilija Borisoviate, chose to pursue oceanography and expressed a deep appreciation for his teachings and how he carries himself in the classroom and life, especially in his ability to make science personable. “I definitely feel grateful to him. He’s been a guide and just an amazing person in my life as my friend and as a professor,” Borisviate said. 

“Every time I see him, I learn something new. It’s cool how much he knows about how the world works and how the ocean ecosystem functions,” O’Shea’s daughter Elena O’Shea said. Elena and her brother grew up living off the grid and spending much of their time exploring the beach where they’d look at different creatures, ask questions, and learn much from their father. 

To facilitate sustainable practices on an individual level, O’Shea advocates for reducing one’s energy consumption. By facilitating peace and sustainable practices in our homes and our communities, O’Shea feels that peace can be built up and ripple outward, ultimately affecting the world as a whole. 

“When I moved to Trinidad in 1986, the place I moved didn’t have electricity,” O’Shea said. He opted for solar energy instead of running a power line on his property and implemented a hydropower generator in the creek on his land. He continues to live sustainably and remains off the grid. This way of living has given him a unique perspective on having a heightened sense of awareness of how much electricity he consumes. 

Building a homestead and gardening are passions of O’Shea’s. “I have got a beautiful batch of garlic going right now. Last year I grew the three sisters, corn, beans, and squash,” O’Shea said. He uses an old cast iron tub in his garden as a fire tub, burning fallen branches underneath to heat the water and then pouring it into the garden after. His love of playing the guitar and singing has prevailed for many years. “I also like to hang out down by the creek and just sit and watch the water flow by.” His two cats often join him. 

The calamitous nature of humans is troubling to O’Shea. “Lots of wars are going on, and it’s very distressing to me, war is the most destructive thing I see we do on this planet as a species, but I also realized that there are a lot of people that are working toward positive, constructive outcomes,” O’Shea said. 

As O’Shea has grown his awareness and life experience, he has witnessed more constructive and positive forces in the world than harm or destruction. He feels there is both an immense amount of loss and an immense amount of healing happening on Earth. “So, I’ve come to my philosophy that things are getting better, faster than they’re getting worse,” O’Shea said.