Chuck Weikert

Chuck Weikert was born, raised and educated in northern Delaware, where he lived near a small brook and a wetland known simply as “the swamp.” He turned over rocks just to see who lived there. He fished, built dams and tree houses, and captured frogs, toads, snakes, turtles, newts and whatever else showed a willingness to be trotted home to his terrarium. He raised and bred tropical fish, built an ant farm, and one time, managed to release hundreds of baby praying mantises into the house. Not a particularly dedicated student in his youth, Chuck was more interested in learning how to tie flies, read a stream, swim, cycle, play ice hockey, and kick, hit and toss balls. “Somehow I stumbled through college,” he says, emerging with SCUBA diver certification and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Delaware, ready to see the world. For two years he was a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in the Kingdom of Tonga, where he learned not only the local Polynesian dialect but also the “language” of a diverse Pacific coral reef ecosystem. Thus began a lifetime of exploring reefs. During his career as a U. S. National Park Service ranger naturalist, he spent 13 years at Virgin Islands National Park. As the Chief of Interpretation, he presented programs and wrote extensively about coral reef ecosystems, championing the need to protect and preserve them. His writing has been featured in numerous National Park Service publications and in magazines and newsletters, in print and online. Now retired, he lives in Del Mar, California with his wife Rosemary and two cats. He volunteers at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, interpreting marine ecosystems and the need to conserve them. When not in front of a spellbound audience at the aquarium’s kelp tank, Chuck is as likely to be found haunting the great museums and galleries of the world as he is cruising the waters of a coral reef, always on the hunt for the curious, little known stories, artifacts and human endeavors that unlock the reef’s mysteries.