Zac Carvalho- 2026 Intern!
Howdy folks! My name is Zac Carvalho, and I am beyond honored to announce that I am the Boston Sea Rovers 2026 intern. I have been attending the symposium since I was six years old; I can recall having a blast with the touch tanks, then being entranced by the film festival, staring in wonder as I saw animals that I never knew existed. I have been diving for twelve years. Currently, I am Open water, dry suit, and DPV certified; however, I hope that over the summer, I will be able to get my Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, and tri-mix certifications.
Since I was 4 months old, I’ve been on, in or under the ocean. My family and I would spend our summers sailing up and down the coast of Cape Ann to escape the humidity of Georgia, where I was born. Kendall’s Crib, named after my sister, was a 32ft Catalina, anchoring only to fish, dive, or sleep. Occasionally, we would go ashore to exchange Lobsters for laundry (quite a good deal after being on a sailboat for two weeks). In 2013, we made the decision to return to Cape Ann permanently.
I come from a family of divers. In the summers, I can typically be found on my family’s boat diving for lobsters with my father, who has been diving for 54 years. My grandfather was one of the first people to start using the original Aqua-Lung (we have his horse collar regulator framed in the basement). While I never got the chance to meet my grandfather, I have been inspired by my family’s stories of his engineering work and ingenuity. I am proud to announce that in the fall I will be attending the University of Rhode Island for Marine Engineering, so I can follow in his “fin kicks”.
While I want to pursue Marine Engineering, I also have a passion for photography. I started taking photos five years ago, originally just shooting for my high school’s sports teams. I have been taking underwater photos for just about three years now, and it is one of my favorite excuses to hop in the water. I primarily shoot in black and white. I love to capture the odd angles and under-recognized things (I have over 2000 photos of bubbles in motion).
I’m excited for the experiences and the things that I will learn through the internship this summer. One of the biggest things I’m looking forward to this summer is forming my own dive community; maybe I will even be able to bring reef and wreck divers together!
I can’t wait to document and share the opportunities I experience and share the amazing things I learn with all of you.
I’ll be posting blog posts on here as well as the BSR intern Instagram; you can find the link to that below.
Boston Sea Rovers Intern Instagram: Bostonsearoverintern
A collection of a few of my photos:
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Arctic Day 3-5: Hikes and Dives
Over the night we had sailed down to a bay called Midterhukhamna, south of Longyearbyen, and were gearing up for our first full day on the Ortelius. We spent the morning in our diving orientation, and once we had all been shown the helicarrier where we were to store our dive gear, it was time…
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Arctic Day 1-2: So Long, Longyearbyen!
Late Friday afternoon, I stepped off a plane and breathed in Arctic air for the first time. I am currently in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, about halfway up the Arctic Circle in a Norwegian archipelago. Associate Sea Rover Faith Ortins runs the company BlueGreen Expeditions, and she has been extraordinarily generous in inviting me to join her…
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NEAq Day 6: Quincy Care Center
At the end of my week at the New England Aquarium main campus, I drove down to meet Dan Dolan (friend of the Sea Rovers) and his wife Dawn at their home in Higham, MA. We went for a lovely dinner while we talked about my week and the experiences I had at the New…
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NEAq Days 4-5: Animal Health with the Pinnipeds
When I showed up to the aquarium for my day shadowing the Animal Health Department, I didn’t go inside the building for an hour after I arrived. The harbor seal exhibit by the ticket booths outside the aquarium had been completely drained that morning, and the animal health team was inside with some of the…
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NEAq Day 2-3: Penguins & GOT
On Sunday, I was with another staff member on their birthday, this time with penguin aquarist Mia Luzieti! Similar to the GOT, the first task of the morning for the Penguin team is food prep. The penguins’ food rotates through several different species of fish, and that day we were feeding them herring, anchovies, and…
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NEAq: Diving the Giant Ocean Tank!
On my first day back in Boston I was excited to continue my Aquarium experiences, this time with the New England Aquarium. Saturday morning, I met with Dan Dolan, a friend of the Sea Rovers, before the Aquarium opened. He and I walked through the aquarium and he introduced me to his fellow friend of…
