Raised in an Italian immigrant family from Brooklyn, New York, Dan Basta has had an exciting if not unorthodox career, which for over five decades has taken him around the world, from huddled around cooking fires with indigenous peoples in Papua New Guinea to dinner in the White House and many places in between. He has three engineering degrees, and his professional interests have led him from aerospace to practically every facet of environmental engineering and management, at, for example, John Hopkins University, the National Academy of Sciences, Resources for the Future, and ultimately the U.S. Government, where he was a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for more than two decades, retiring after 37 years of service. He also has consulted on many varied projects around the world and served on the Board of several organizations. In his professional career has published several scientific books and more then 50 technical papers and articles. Besides his analytic skills he is best known in Government for his long-term development and management of the Nation’s National Marine Sanctuary system.

Outside of professional circles he is known as an explorer, adventurer and master diver who has traveled the world. He has dived more than 160 shipwrecks. Since retirement he has become an accomplished writer and author, writing tales of his adventures, sometimes to the wildest of places, and of the colorful people in them.