Daniel C. Abel

Daniel C. Abel is Professor of Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC. He earned his M.Sc. in marine biology from the College of Charleston and his Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and was a postdoctoral fellow in marine biomedicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. His research focuses on the physiology and ecology of sharks and rays. In addition to numerous scientific papers, he is co-author of the books Environmental Issues: Looking Towards a Sustainable Future (4th ed, Pearson.), Environmental Oceanography (Jones and Bartlett), Environmental Geology (Jones and Bartlett), and Shark Biology and Conservation. He has been an award-winning environmental columnist, was founding director of CCU’s Sustainability Initiative from 2006 – 2012, and served on the board of directors of the Dogwood Alliance, a forest protection organization. He taught at sea and in > 30 countries on the M/V Explorer with Semester at Sea in spring 2010 and summer 2012, 2013, and 2014, and his annual Biology of Sharks course held at the Bimini Biological Field Station in the Bahamas has run for twenty-five years. He has appeared on CNN, CBC, CBS, NBC, The Weather Channel, and National Geographic documentaries. Dr. Abel is a Senior Fellow of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, and is the inaugural Honors Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Coastal Carolina University. He is a native South Carolinian and resides in Pawley’s Island, SC.