Mr. Dan Basta, Director
National Marine Sanctuary Program

Dan Basta leads the federal program, which is charged with the mission to protect and conserve the unique ecological and cultural marine resources contained in the sanctuary system. He joined the National Ocean Service in 1979 and has applied his training as an environmental engineer to a variety of disciplines, including land use planning, living marine resource assessment, and resource economics. Previously, Mr. Basta held positions at Resources for the Future, the Environmental Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences, and Johns Hopkins University. He is co-author of more than 50 publications, including textbooks on modeling, atlases of U.S. coastal and ocean regions, and various reports, books and articles on environmental issues.