Landry’s Incorporated owns and operates 500+ facilities nationwide and includes four large aquariums (The Downtown Aquarium – Houston and Denver, The Aquarium – Kemah and Nashville), restaurants with aquarium exhibits for diners to view and the Golden Nugget (Las Vegas).
The aquarium concepts began in 1998 with the opening of the Kemah Aquarium and continued steadily until the Golden Nugget was purchased and renovated in 2006.
The Landry’s Inc. Dive Program is led by Todd Hall, who oversees 100 divers companywide, ranging from aquarists, mammal keepers and dive staff. In addition to these paid staff divers, there are 90 volunteer divers that assist with the dive operations at The Downtown Aquarium in Denver, CO. These 190 divers complete 20,000 dives annually which vary in mode and purpose including scientific diving (husbandry and field work), commercial diving, recreational diving and breath hold diving.
Todd and his team collaborate with A1 Scuba in Denver, CO for their guest diving program. The Swim with the Fish and Dive with the Fish programs offer guests up close views of moray eels, cownose rays, and a 400 pound Queensland Grouper.
In addition to the collaborative work with A1 Scuba, Landry’s Inc. divers assist Colorado Parks and Wildlife monitoring local waterways for invasive species.
ABOUT THE DSO
Todd Hall graduated from Southwest Texas State University with a B.S in General Biology. During his time in school, Todd elected to take scuba diving to meet his physical education requirements. Shortly after certification, he attend a field course at the Roatan Institute of Marine Science for Coral Reef Ecology and “never looked back.”
After completing his Instructor Training Course through the Hall’s Institute of Diving, Todd worked in dive retail and instruction in Houston, Texas where he met a curator from the Kemah Aquarium. Eventually, Todd became employed at the Kemah facility working as an aquarist, Assistant Curator and then DSO at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, CO in 2005. He then was promoted in 2006 to the Corporate Dive Operations Manager position.
Todd enjoys the dynamic work that is conducted in aquarium and zoo dive operations explaining, “Things are rarely dull…”. In his free time, Todd loves hanging out with his 5 year old son, camping, golfing, music (he lives 10 minutes from Red Rocks!!!) and the Denver Broncos.