MDC Founder, Bruce Jaildagian

BIO

BRUCE JAILDAGIAN was born and raised on the Atlantic seashore and inspired by Jacques Cousteau to fall in love with the ocean. His life’s aspiration was to live and work on the water.

After a degree in Biology, he worked at the Miami Seaquarium and became a Vet tech. After a short eight-year career as a commercial pilot, he returned to his biology roots with Greenpeace International to become the International Sea Turtle coordinator for ten years. During this time, he traveled around the world, to remote places in the Mediterranean, Australia, Mexico and Central and South America, with employees worldwide.

Some of his projects included time on the Rainbow Warrior in the Pacific, protecting white harp seal pups in Canada and living on a sailboat participating in a toxic campaign in Chesapeake Bay.

Moving to New Smyrna Beach in 1979, he started the Volunteer Sea Turtle Beach Patrol, here and in four other counties, north to Georgia. Discussions about the need to showcase the Indian River Lagoon started in 1992, that later became the Marine Discovery Center in 1997, where he worked until 2006.
After pouring his heart and soul into many years with the MDC, he is proud of the progress that the MDC has made through the years, and looks forward to being a part of it’s continued success.