Hastings, now a Senior Marine Biologist at the Conservations and Fisheries Department (C&FD), started out his career 20 years ago at the bottom of the ladder and worked his way up to being the head of the Coastal Zone Management Unit within the C&FD.

Hastings, who hails from Brewer's Bay and is a former student of both Meyers School (now the Enis Adams Primary) and the then BVI High School (now Elmore Stoutt High), recalled how catching rides to school in Road Town landed him his now successful career.

The marine biologist, who graduated from the BVI High School in 1990, recalled getting rides from Ms. Anabelle Skelton and the late Honourable Ethlyn Smith, who were both very instrumental in giving him encouragements and support.

He recalled after graduating, he was catching a ride home one day and was picked up by the former Government Minister Honourable Smith, who asked him what he was going to do now that he had graduated. Acknowledging his love for the environment and being a “product of the bay”, he told her he wanted to be a marine biologist, a lawyer or an architect. He was then recommended by Honourable Smith, a then senior public servant with responsibility for the Conservation and Fisheries Department, to go in to the department the following Monday and let them know that she sent him.

On 30 September 1990, Hastings said that was the beginning of his career there, where he started off as a Fisheries Trainee.

The young Virgin Islander worked in that position for four years before he went on to pursue further education and in 1998, he graduated from the University of the Virgin Islands with his Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology.

The C&FD employee returned in 1998 to take up his new post as Marine Biologist, where he worked in that field until 2003, when again he went off to expand his academic qualifications.

Hastings spent three years at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada ,where he was awarded his Masters of Science in Zoology in 2006.

The highlight of his career came during those years when Hastings was part of the second group of people in 20 years to raise the endangered Leatherback Turtles in captivity.

His thesis also allowed him to have the opportunity to appear in a 30-minute documentary on National Geographic, something that he considers to be the pinnacle of his scientific career and accomplishments.

“The highlight for my career was being featured on National Geographic which is the most watched science television channel. As a young scientist, to do that work and for it to be rewarded like that ,very few scientists get  their works featured like that,” said the Virgin Islander scientist, who said he was also proud to find out later that his university roommate and colleague then was named one of the top 10 upcoming scientists.

Hastings' study was on the growth and metabolism of Leatherback sea turtles in their first year of life, a study that was never attempted before and one that saw him overcoming several obstacles while trying to get permission to do such a research with endangered species.

While permission to take the baby leatherbacks from the Virgin Islands to keep in captivity was easily approved mainly due to his affiliation with the Conservation and Fisheries Department, Hastings said it took him about a year before he got permission from the Canadian Government to take them into Canada. He eventually got permission and took 20 baby leatherbacks from the VI to Canada to do his study.

Hastings and his team, which was made up of another graduate student and his Professor Dr. David R. Jones who funded the project, was successful in keeping at least one leatherback alive for two years.

Hastings said he believes there was only one other person who was able to keep a leatherback turtle alive for a longer period in captivity.

Noting that most of the life of a leatherback turtle is not known because when they leave at birth they don’t return to the same nesting ground until they are matured, he said little is known of them during that gap.

“We don’t know where they are and how they grow and my study was trying to figure out the lost years and if they can survive in cold temperature, among other things,” Hastings explained.

From their study, Hastings said, it led them to believe that leatherbacks take 12 to 15 years to reach sexual maturity, unlike other sea turtles that take 25 to 30 years.

“The other thing we found out from the metabolic studies, is that not until they reach about 100 kilograms can they go into the cold waters,” the scientist said, nothing that leatherbacks are reptiles that act like mammals and think they can regulate their body temperature,s but science has come to realize that they do so because of their massive size.

“We were trying to figure out at what point can they go into waters that is 4 degrees Celsius, so as they were aging, we put them in the water with extreme temperatures and we monitored how they cope with it,” Hastings explained part of the study.

Upon completing his Masters, Hastings returned to the C&FD in 2006 where he became a Senior Marine Biologist and head of the Coastal Zone Management Unit within the department. He holds responsibility for the lifeguards, beach wardens, other marine biologists, responsible for beaches, marine turtles and anything that affects the coastlines.

Asked how he feels about his career choice 20 years later, Hasting said with a sense of humility: “I was lucky like I said. All of this was luck, it came from catching a ride, but I am also a product of how the civil service system can work, where government sends a civil servant to study and they return into the system.”

“I am a perfect product of education through the civil service and I am putting back what I have achieved into the country. Normally government has to bring people in to fill posts because we don’t have qualified people, but I am definitely a product of how sending BVIslanders from the workforce to study and then bring them back can work,” the proud civil servant said.

Apart from his full time job at C&FD, Hastings still finds time to teach subject areas that is associated with sciences and that is something that he enjoys doing. He taught in the Alternative Secondary Education Programme at the High School at nights before he went off to complete his Masters studies and when he returned, he also did so for two years in 2007 and 2008.

More recently, over the last six months, he has been teaching student athletes at the ESHS who needed help in Geography and Mathematics to assist them in maintaining their grades.

“I love teaching; that is why I always volunteer my time there and being in science, I love to do anything in that field and lend a hand in those areas,” said Hastings.

While he spends most of his time committed to his job as a marine biologist, Hastings, who also has a passion for architecture, is the owner of Realty Solutions and when he is not working at C&FD, he is busy dealing with his real estate business.

“My passion has always been for the environment, but being a young professional, I don’t want to get bottlenosed in one career path; that is why I am involved in the environment, real estate and teaching. I find it necessary to be multi-faceted so you are not pigeon-holed into one career,” said the career-minded Virgin Islander.

His advice to young employees, especially of the civil service, is to follow the same path of elevating themselves and to use their time wisely, work hard and stay in the system.

“One of the things I have learnt over the years, is to do almost everything, from job descriptions to performance appraisal, because the more you know is the better for you, so you don’t lock yourself into one single area of work. The more you know career-wise, you get a lot more options,” he advises.

Hastings is the son of Louetta Greene of Brewer's Bay and Hilroy Hastings, who resides in St. Thomas.

Apart from his busy life as a marine biologist and realtor, the young professional still makes time to enjoy  outdoor activities, especially swimming, sailing, scuba diving, kayaking, bowling and reading.

“Don’t let the long sleeve shirt and tie fool you, I still get out there and be with those guys and be where I need to be. I am a product of the bay and love the environment,” said Hastings, who keeps his diving apparatus under his desk in the event duty calls and he is needed to get out into the field to work, but also to be part of what he loves and enjoys.