Becky A. Dayhuff has spent most of her adult life writing, volunteering, and working on environmental and animal protection issues. She was a wild and domestic animal rescuer and rehabber for over 30 years in the states before moving to the Virgin Islands, being one of the first to successfully rehab black bear cubs and return them to the wild without making them nuisance bears.
She has given presentations on endangered species, including slide programs of her wildlife photography from Africa, to thousands of school children and civic groups over the years. She also organized and led a 2 week photo safari to Africa with 29 participants as a fund-raising and educational trip to promote the protection of endangered species.
She has participated in whale watches and identification off the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts and is now lecturing and leading whale watching trips in the Virgin Islands during the annual Humpback migration in late winter.
Becky was a substitute and special education teacher in the mountains of E. Tennessee where she worked with low income children. While her lesson plans emphasized the importance of reading, writing, and the worth of the individual, the lesson plans centered on the environment and all the life forms contained therein. She would often take various reptiles and mammals to schools and public presentations, including snakes, where she dispelled myths about their dangers. During the World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, she presented talks on native wildlife and was featured in several television and radio programs broadcast from the Fair.
She has also assisted in the production of educational television programs for children including a series for WTBS, and she has been interviewed repeatedly in print media. On the weekends she could be found at the facility where she lived in a national forest lecturing to visitors about the forest and educating them about local wildlife. Learning of the plight of the Florida manatee, Becky spent a year researching and writing a series, Swim With The Manatees, that was first published on Africam.com and led to Becky becoming the U.S. correspondent for Africam. She has since granted rights to Swim With The Manatees to various marine environmental and educational groups, and the series is now used as reference material by children and teachers. The series on manatees led to her participation in public hearings in Florida on the state of the manatees and how best to protect them while preserving the public's use of the waterways there. She was also asked on several occasions to lead manatee encounter tours by the most respected encounter operator on Florida's Nature Coast.
After taking up scuba diving at the age of 50, a lifelong dream, Becky went on to become a scuba instructor and underwater photographer; extending her passion for the environment and wildlife into the world's oceans. She can now be found every weekend underwater, teaching and documenting the urgency of protecting the marine environment.
Becky Dayhuff believes that education is the key to preserving both the terrestrial and underwater environments and all whose lives depend upon them. She currently writes columns on the marine environment as well as terrestrial wildlife for All At Sea Magazine. She authored and maintained two award winning websites for WebSeed Publishing prior to the 9/ll tragedy, DiveSafeAndOften.com and AnimalsHaveStories.com. She is now developing an educational website, SeaRealmExplorer.com, that will feature her many articles and underwater photographs, and will provide educational material for children as well as adults.
