Dan grew up in St. Petersburg where his father was Director of what was back then the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory, right next door to the Don Cesar Hotel.  As a kid he spent countless days on the water in Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  In 1966 his dad bought a lot and built a house on Lake Tsala Apopka north of Inverness in Hernando. He and his family spent summers and weekends on the lake hunting, fishing and playing in the lake. He has recently retired as a dentist and now lives full time on the lake. His 60-year association with the area gives him a unique perspective to history, biology and ecology of Tampa Bay and the surrounding areas, including our beloved Lake Tsala Apopka. He has boated, surfed, fished, and hunted from Pinellas County through Manatee, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Levy counties.