An unswerving commitment to oceanic protection brought Capt. Craig McLean ’93 to the Quinnipiac School of Law. McLean is director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Oceanic Exploration.

But he may be more famous for his study of perhaps the most celebrated shipwreck ever. McLean was part of the NOAA team that explored the remains of the Titanic.

“I’ve been interested in underwater exploration since I was a kid in New Jersey on the Passaic River,” he said. “In time, I realized that the key to the ocean is science, but the key to protecting it is policy, backed up by science. So, the choice of a law degree followed naturally.”

McLean joined a team of scientists and specialists on a recent expedition to the Titanic site, serving as project director and working hand in hand with Robert Ballard, the expedition’s chief scientist and the man who discovered the Titanic wreck in 1985.

A main objective was to obtain a photomosaic of the ship and compare it with photographs Ballard took nearly 20 years earlier, but McLean’s interests went beyond mapping a sunken ship.

“It’s a cultural icon and a maritime gravesite deserving of our respect,” he said. “It’s also a deep-sea laboratory where we can study the chemical, biological and human effects on the ship’s rate of deterioration and apply that knowledge to other deepwater shipwrecks.”

A member of the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar, McLean has worked as a legal counsel to various NOAA administrators and offices and was the prime mover in establishing the office he now directs.