By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Hays, Kansas, is a long, long way from any ocean.

But this week, students across the city were exposed to life under the sea through the eyes of a nationally acclaimed underwater photographer.

Michael Patrick O'Neill, also a widely published author of children's books, visited local elementary schools throughout town all week and gave a PowerPoint presentation about sea animals at each.

All the while, he stressed to the students the importance of doing well in school.

"Diving requires lots of math and science," he said while showing students a computer he wears on his wrist while diving.

During his visit, schools had on display some or all six of the books authored by O'Neill, a native of Brazil.

O'Neill, interested in conservation since childhood, left his native country at 18 to attend Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He has photography licensed worldwide and gives presentations to schools and other organizations.

A team of elementary school librarians in Hays collaborates to bring an author to Hays every other year and this year chose O'Neill, who also was making his first trip to Kansas.

During the presentations, O'Neill called forward a student from the audience, who would don a life vest and other equipment used in underwater photographer. O'Neill explained the use for each piece of equipment and talked about safety tips to follow while diving.

"It's heavy," fifth-grader Cole Schumacher said while volunteering during one of the presentations Thursday afternoon at O'Loughlin Elementary School.

O'Neill answered questions from the students, ranging from if he had ever been stung by a jellyfish to how many times a year he dives to how many pictures he has taken.

The answers to those two questions were "No ... about 150 times a year ... and somewhere around 500,000."

Not surprisingly, O'Neill said the favorite part of his job is photography.

"I love taking pictures," he said.

Students and staff in Hays believed the same about getting to see his work.

"It was such an unusual topic for us here in Kansas," said Lynette Armstrong, O'Loughlin librarian. "We don't get to do scuba diving here, so it was really fascinating to us."