Posted by Sanjiv Prabhakaran on Nov 30, 2018
 
 
We kicked off the meeting with a quick update from Susheela Narayanan. She gave an update about her trip to Bangalore, India and how she was given a warm welcome. She presented the DMSB Rotary contribution of USD 3,900 towards a scholarship fund for 13 college students.
 
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"My 3 Things In Life" by Sanjiv Prabhakaran
Sanjiv talked about 3 important things in his life.
  1. Amazing Road Trips with family
  2. Compassion - helping others
  3. Bonding time with daughter
 
 
 
He said that despite his dad's busy schedule as a businessman, he made time to take the family on road trips during their annual school vacation time. He would drive almost 800+ miles from Bombay down to southern India (Kerala). His dad loved driving and in those days the roads were not very car friendly but he would still drive for 3-4 days and stop at several places on the way. Sanjiv was thus able to experience the different cultures in each state as they drove down. His dad owned some of the cars similar to ones shown above.
 
Sanjiv learnt later the compassion side of his dad. Apparently he was funding an unknown child's school and college education through a charity organization. Sanjiv also experienced compassion from many Ohio State Students that helped him settle down in the campus when he first landed in the USA back in 1981.
 
Finally, he had the best opportunity to bond with his younger daughter through their daily walks to school. When he moved to San Diego the key criteria for buying their house was to be within walking distance to their child's elementary school. That was an amazing experience for both.
 
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"Biodiversity, conservation of Marine Life" by Paul Dayton
Paul Dayton is a long-term neighbor having lived in Solana Beach since 1970 when he came to Scripps to study marine ecology with an emphasis on kelp ecosystems.  Paul is a professor of oceanography in the Integrative Oceanography Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He was the longest serving member of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and has served on several advisory boards. He has mentored over 40 PhD students. In 2007 he became the third recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western Society of Naturalists. We had a good number of members and guests to listen to his exciting talk.
 
 
He talked about the importance of kelp forests in the marine life. Kelps detach and form sea balls and drift to shore. That impacts the life & reproduction of Abalones. The octopus eats these abalones, but the Moray Eels protect the abalones because these eels eat the octopus. This type of ecosystem chain protection is essential to preserve the kelp forest as per Dayton.
 
 
When kelp accumulates on the beaches it forms a "wrack zone" that acts as a natural input of marine resources into a terrestrial system, providing food and habitat for a variety of coastal organisms. It also attracts birds that eat the insects under the sand hence forming that important ecosystem chain. Kelp used to be harvested commercially in Del Mar few years ago. It stopped due to the influx of Asian competition. He has done about 500 dives in the Antartica. He says that Starfishes have disappeared due to some disease as a result of warmer sea water.
 
 
In the end DMSB Club President Ken Barrett presented the speaker with the Joshua certificate that represents our club DMSB donating school supplies to schools in Malawi in the name of the speaker.
 
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