⛵ is 1/2 Italian (both parents are 1/2 Italian), Portuguese and Irish. Mackenzie inherited his father's darker complexion; he has a classic Mediterranean look and build.
⛵ suffers from retrograde amnesia due to being hit by a car at age 12. The first moment of his childhood he remembers starts from the time he woke up in the pediatric ICU ward at Addison Gilbert Hospital with a fractured leg, three fractured ribs, wrist and skull. His entire childhood from before the accident is a blank. He's been shown pictures of birthdays, family gatherings, friends from school he'd known since kindergarten but doesn't have any recollection of them. Still has problems with his memories and tends to document everything in case he needs to be reminded of someone or something.
⛵ after repeating the 6th grade (due to his injuries) he took an interest in the ocean. Alberte often would take Mac down to the seawall along the main drag of Gloucester to tell him fishing stories as an attempt to jog his son's memory of his earlier childhood. Whale watches and even the occasional jaunt on the fishing boat only increased Mac's love of the sea. His mother worked the summers at the Crow's Nest, a bar popular with fishermen and Mac would often run errands for the crewmen who boarded on the upper floors of the Crow's Nest for chances to get onto the swordfish boats.
⛵ spent half his summers in Winthrop, his mother's hometown, to reconnect with the family who lived there. Grew very close to several of his cousins who he treats as siblings. He still splits the little bit of free time in the summer he has between Winthrop and Gloucester.
⛵ became much more athletic after the accident; started playing soccer and was a sprinter on the Gloucester varsity track team. On his 19th birthday got wings tattooed on the outside of either ankle to celebrate a state championship in the 4x400 relay. Mac also played soccer in college. He continues to play in a pickup league and runs five miles a day, 2.5 in the morning before work, 2.5 after he gets home.
⛵ after graduating from Gloucester High School, attended New York University for Secondary Education to teach Earth Science, with a minor in Environmental Biology and graduated the bachelor's program in three years cum laude. Then he went to the State University of New York Stony Brook, one of the top marine science programs in the US to complete his Masters'. He had two paths open to him: a research assistant with The New England Aquarium or a science teacher for Gloucester High School. As much as the pull for teaching had for him, he opted to move to Cape Cod to study the salt marshes the Aquarium had access to. He became SCUBA-certified not long after starting his fellowship at the aquarium
⛵ after two years, he moved from a fellowship in the marshes to the main Boston facility. His experience with the salt marshes landed him in the educational department, interacting with school groups as a tour guide. He decided to get his Masters in Education and as of 2012 is the Director of Education at the Aquarium. Now the boss of the same staff he used to work with, he also is the liaison to all educational institutions in the New England region. As Director, his department organizes lectures and in-depth educational resources and activities for teachers, parents, kids and adult learners. In the summer, Mac is part-time member of the whale watch team and when he can manage to a bit of time he works with the sea lion/harbor seal team as part of the meeting animals program for students.
⛵ has been a practicing Catholic his entire life (as far as he remembers). He usually goes to early Mass on Sundays and confession on Thursday evenings if he can. He knows that it may seem very odd to claim a strong faith in God and be a scientist but finds his profession validates his faith instead of contradicting it. He holds to the scientific evidence that the earth is four billion years old and that evolution is a proven means of life developing on the planet. He is often fond of saying 'rocks don't lie'.
⛵ is an avid sailor, a skill he picked up in his youth from his father and refined during his time at NEA. Purchased a 1983 Endeavour 40 sailboat in the spring of 2010 that he restored and refurbished with any spare moment he could get. It is named the Oracle. It was taken it for its maiden voyage Memorial Day weekend 2012, sailing up to Gloucester and back. His eventual plan is to spend his summers on the Oracle, sailing up and down the New England coast doing research on his own but for now, it is his stress reliever. He sails on his own during the week and takes friends out on the weekends from the start of April to the end of November. He keeps it berthed at the Boston Waterboat Marina, just down Long Wharf from the Aquarium.
⛵ finished his doctorate work in January of 2016 at UMass Boston, his dissertation on the recovery effects on the ecosystem of the lower Charles River and Boston Harbor in light of the ongoing clean-up efforts and how those lessons can be adapted and applied in other highly polluted urbanized estuary regions. He now uses the honorific 'Dr.' in front of his name.
