Shark attacks were Adam Scimone’s favorite part of working in the Florida Keys at a marine science institute.

“We had a little pool on the property that would fill up with seawater, and when I would go fishing for sharks, whenever I caught a small shark, I’d put it in the pool and take students to go swim in the pool with the sharks,” Scimone, chemistry teacher, said. “Technically if you get touched by a shark, you’ve been attacked, so a kid would touch the shark and then get to go home saying they were attacked.”

Hands-on situations like these let Scimone teach valuable lessons about ecology and change common misconceptions about marine life. His job at the institute was to give visiting school groups what he called a crash course in marine biology.

“I taught coral reef ecology, but I taught it at the reef,” Scimone said. “I was a captain of a boat, so I would load people up, and my classroom would be on the water. One of the best ways to teach someone something was to show them right there on the reef.”

Scimone landed the job after making a major upheaval to follow a childhood dream. He reminds students that dream jobs do still exist.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I said I wanted to be a marine biologist,” Scimone said. “When I got out of college, I had a really nice job working for a university as a researcher, but one day I just decided I was sick of it, so I quit and moved down to the Florida Keys and found this job.”

What he misses most is the lifestyle down in the Keys. He spent most days on the water.

“My favorite part was definitely living on the beach. I was a beach rat,” Scimone said.  “Whenever I wasn’t working, I was fishing, or diving, or surfing. I had a great tan all the time.”

Despite spending an entire year at the job, Scimone said nothing about it got old. Every day he found something new.

“It’s hard to say one interaction with the wildlife that was the most special, because every single day there was something to talk about,” Scimone said. “Every single day, I could say I saw something that I had never seen before and have never seen again. It never got old, seeing a shark, or some weird sea slug or type of coral. Every single time it was like I was a kid again, finding something on the beach.”