Growing up on the coast of Connecticut, Eric Niskanen, the owner and founder of Oceanic Eco Tours, developed his love of the water. He has lived, played, and worked on and under water for most of his life. Learning to scuba dive at the age of twelve, Eric found an early passion. Later, he found his first water-related job– lifeguarding at a state beach on the coast of Connecticut. After graduating from Syracuse University, Eric moved west across the United States, and then kept going west, ending up in Thailand on the island of Koh Samui for his first job in scuba diving as a Dive Master. After completing his instructor training in San Jose and Monterey Bay, he worked for a stretch in California before heading back to the tropics. In Mexico, Eric completed his cave training and worked as a cavern and cave guide in the Cenotes of Mexico, which are the entrances to the largest underground river systems in the world. Continuing to teach in addition to guiding, Eric ended up in Honduras for a little while in charge of the Dive Master Program at a local dive school, as well as getting to guide tours with the biggest fish in the sea, whale sharks.  The caves of Mexico soon called him back before he hung up his fins and double tanks for a time, trading them in for crampons and alpine climbing gear in the Cascade Mountains of the northwest. Eventually, the call of the ocean was too strong and Eric started Oceanic Eco Tours to provide educational whale and dolphin excursions off the coast of San Diego.