LIONFISH PATROL
SUBMARINE PILOT
The Real Deal
Our Submarine Pilot
Scott Cassell
Diving since 1977, Scott has accumulated over 15,000 hours of dive time and is a (former) Advanced Diving Medical Technician Instructor, Commercial Diving Instructor, and Hyperbaric Medical Technician Instructor. Scott also taught Physics, Physiology and Emergency Medicine at the College Of Oceaneering.
Scott became one of the first to earn a USCG Qualified Submersible Pilot rating. In thesubmersible, SeaMobile, he performed over 800 dives for both tourism and research at Catalina Island. He later used the SeaMobile to conduct an underwater survey of Lake Tahoe in 2009 making nearly 50 dives to underwater thermal vents, earthquake faults and ancient forest of still-standing 3,000 year old trees.
He is a (former) U.S. Navy qualified Diving Medical Technician, Diving Supervisor, Modular Amphibious Egress Trainer Instructor and Aircrew Breathing Device Instructor for the USMC.
Scott served in both the US Navy and Army National Guard, as a MedEvac Helicopter Flight Instructor and Combat Life Saver Instructor and most recently Scott was Company Commander of Bravo Company, 2nd BN Army National Guard, Special Troops Company, Search & Rescue Team, San Jose for two years (Sept 2014-Oct 2016).
After 22 years of service, he is now serving as a volunteer, he has been promoted to the rank of Colonel and is Director of Heraldry for the National Command of United States Volunteers.For several years he was a Private Contractor for ‘high risks regions’ providing service as a medic, combat diver, reconnaissance, rifleman and sniper. Scott was the first person in the world to film the Giant Squid in the wild (which aired on a History Channel program in 2007.
During his 30+ year love affair with the sea he has watched her begin to decline and subsequently developed the non-profit; Undersea Voyager Project to privatize Ocean Science and empower the public to perform studies. Using his submersible to perform research dives to investigate why the sea is in decline, trace the cause and working with an international consortium of scientists and Ambassadors and place facts & findings on global access media. He and his home-built submarine, the Great White, have traveled to Tioman, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines, Switzerland, Germany, the Pacific Northwest, Alpine lakes, and Florida and performed dive missions investigating coral bleaching, plastics at depth, pollution and overfishing.
In 1993 Scott began a campaign to hunt & film marine life poachers using SpecOps Combat Dive and Sniper techniques (called rECOn Missions) to collect images of their illegal activities and turn the over the evidence-footage to officials. So far (at least) 16 people have been convicted.
Scott spent nearly ten years researching and filming Giant Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) in Baja, MX and has documented a vast wealth of behavior on camera for both science and film production entities. To date Scott has either been the presenter or cameraman or science advisor (or all three jobs) on 52 documentaries for prestigious entities as BBC, Disney, History, Discovery, Spike TV, Travel, MTV, and National Geographic.
Current and Past Credentials & Awards
- Medal of Valor
- Legion of Merit
- Meritorious Commendation Medal
- Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society (expired membership)
- Laureate From the Royal Malaysian Society
Education
- Commercial Diver, Underwater Commercial Training, Atlanta Ga. (1977)US Army Combat Medical Specialist, Ft Sam Houston Texas (1984)
- US Army Combat Medical Specialist, Ft Sam Houston Texas (1984)
- Emergency Medical Technician, Rapid City South Dakota (1984)
- Multiforce Combat Dive Operations, Colombia (1985)
- Surgical Science (Surgical Assistant) Penrose Hospital, Colorado (1985)
- UCSD Research Diver, San Diego, CA (1991)
- SDSU Research Diver, San Diego, CA (1992)
- Army National Guard, First of the Eighteenth Cavalry Cavalryman Award (1994)
- San Diego City College, Science and Medicine (1994-5)
- Multiforce Operations, Colombia (1995)
- SDSU Sea Grant Fisheries Enhancement Program (Kelp Forest Management) (1995)
- US Army Medevac Flight Instructor School, Ft. Rucker, Alabama (1996)
- Mixed Gas Commercial Diver, Pacific Geographic Society, Colombia (1996)
- USC Saddleback Campus, Science and Medicine (1997)
- Advanced Dive Medical Technician, College Of Oceaneering (1998)
- SeaMagine Hydrospace Engineering, Submersible Pilot, Catalina Island (1998)
- Advanced Dive Medical Technician, Instructor, College Of Oceaneering (1999)
- Merchant Marine Officer (2000)
- US Coast Guard Masters Rating (Submersible Pilot/Captain) (2000)
- Steam Machines, Mixed Gas Closed Circuit Rebreather Qualification (2001)
- U.S. Navy Diving Supervisor (as civilian contractor) (2003)
- U.S. Navy Dive Medical Technician (as civilian contractor) (2003)
- Aviation Water Survival Instructor, Survival Systems USA, Inc. (2003)
- Modular Amphibious Egress Trainer Instructor, Survival Systems (2004)
- Professional Assoc. of Diving Instructors, Open Water SCUBA Instructor (2004)
- Officer Candidate School, Camp Roberts, San Louis Obispo, CA (2013 )
- Signal Corps Training, Army National Guard, Camp Roberts, San Louis Obispo, CA (2016)
- U.S. Army Combat Life Saver Instructor (2011)
- FEMA Military Emergency Management Specialist (2011)
- WMD/RAD/NUC Awareness Trainer, Counter Terrorism Center for RAD/NUC Training, NV (2015)
Choose Your Rank
$10K – Admiral
- 1st Level location of large company logo on the submarine
- Company logo on display at trade shows and events showcasing the submarine
- 1st Level location of large company logo on our YouTube series credits
- 1st Level location company name & linking in the video description
- 1st Level location of large company logo & linking on our website partner page and in our sponsor carousels
- Live mentions in many of the mission videos
- Opportunities to join our team on a mission, be in the video, podcasts & more
$5K – Captain
- 2nd Level location of medium company logo on the submarine
- Company logo on display at trade shows and events showcasing the submarine
- 2nd Level location of medium company logo on our YouTube series credits
- 2nd Level location company name & linking in the video description
- 2nd Level location of medium company logo & linking on our website partner page and in our sponsor carousels
- Live mentions in some of the mission videos
- Opportunities to join our team on a mission, be in the video, podcasts & more
$2,500 – Commander
- 3rd level location of small logo on submarine
- Company logo on display at trade shows and events showcasing the submarine
- 3rd level location of small logo & linking on our website partner page and in our sponsor carousels
- 3rd level location of small logo on our YouTube series credits and in the video description.
- Live mentions in a few of the mission videos
- Opportunities to join our team on a mission, be in the video, podcasts & more
$1,000 – Lieutenant
- 4th level location company name and link on our website partner page
- Company name in our YouTube series credits at the fourth level and in the video description.
$500 – Ensign
- 5th level location company name and link on our website partner page
Volunteer Crew Application: Join Us
