[2] Talacek serves as Oceanographic Field Operations Manager at Aquarius Reef Base for the National Undersea Research Center (NURC).

[2][4] During his first ten-day saturation diving mission aboard Aquarius in July 2001, Talacek commented, "It's really special to see things that only a small group of people ever get to see.

He also monitors life support systems, communicates with the crew on shore, and acts as a divemaster for the scientists aboard Aquarius.

[11] In July 2012 Talacek served as Lead Habitat Technician for "50 Years of Living Beneath the Sea", an expedition commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Jacques Cousteau's Conshelf I project and co-led by Dr. Sylvia Earle.

Talacek served as a habitat technician during the following missions: In May 2007, Talacek and other NURP/UNCW divers, including fellow Aquarius divers Mark Hulsbeck and Jim Buckley, set up a coral monitoring station pylon offshore from the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory in Discovery Bay, Jamaica for a cooperative program among Caribbean countries called Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC).