Changing Oceans

Jeff and Katy are intrepid adventurers that met in 2009 while working as marine mammal researchers on a project off the coast of California. Their shared love of the ocean, wildlife, and travel eventually brought them together. The pair has since traveled to far-flung and remote places around the world, to film, photograph, and study wildlife and quickly vanishing cultures.

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Jeff grew up as the son of a prominent zoo veterinarian and has been around wild and exotic animals his entire life. His passion for marine life lead him to pursue a career in the marine mammal field. Jeff worked for SeaWorld in the early days, with animal acquisitions and as a lead trainer. The travel bug bit Jeff at 18 years of age when he hitched hiked across the pacific to climb in New Zealand and to dive the famous Great Barrier Reef. Since then he has traveled to more then 100 countries and has lived in Iceland, SE Asia, Turkey, Africa and the Caribbean.

Jeff’s curiosity for the oceans and it’s marine life eventually lead him away from the captive industry and into rescue and rehabilitation. Jeff oversaw the sea otter rescue along the Kenai Peninsula during the EXXON Valdese oil spill. He was Director of Research & Field Operations for the Keiko Project, the attempted reintroduction of the Killer Whale from the movie “Free Willy”. He oversaw the capture; rehab and successful reintroduction of “Springer” an out of habitat orphan Killer Whale found in the Pacific Northwest in the early 2000’s. NOAA awarded Jeff the “Environmental Hero of the Year” award for his rescue work after the 2005 Tsunami in SE Asia and Hurricane Katrina. His work has been featured in National Geographic, CNN, 60 Minutes, Date Line, the BBC and the New York Times. For the last 10 years Jeff has focused primarily on marine mammal research. He has helped in the development and testing of new tagging technology on multiple species of marine mammals around the globe. He has been scuba diving all his life and is an accomplished free diver. Jeff has a degree in animal behavior.

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Katy has spent much of her life with one foot in the ocean and one foot in the mountains. Having been involved at a young age in marine mammal and sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation efforts in Florida, Katy’s love of the ocean started very early in life. She began scuba diving with her father at age 12 and developed a love for free diving, as she got older. Her love of being underwater has continued throughout life and she is currently a certified PADI dive master.

After attending commercial photography school, Katy traded her flip-flops for climbing boots and focused her camera and her energy in the mountains. She worked for a number of years as a mountaineering/climbing guide, eventually moving into ski guiding and teaching avalanche courses. She co-founded a successful guide service and avalanche school, and her work as a mountain guide took her to mountain ranges, glaciers, and volcanoes all over the world, continually fueling her wonder lust. She has traveled extensively and lived in multiple counties. Katy has worked professionally collecting snow and weather data for the Northwest Avalanche Center, she was involved in snow morphology research in Montana, and she holds an AIARE Level 3 avalanche certification and is trained in wilderness medicine.

Despite her fascination with water in its frozen form, Katy has continued to gravitate toward the ocean. While working seasonally in the mountains, Katy has held jobs crewing on whale watching boats, guiding sea kayaking trips, and eventually she began working in the field of marine mammal research. Her work with marine mammals has taken her to multiple countries and she has had the opportunity to work with a variety of species. She has become progressively more involved in marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation work, working hands on with species ranging from dugongs in Indonesia to Killer Whales in New Zealand. Katy has been involved with terrestrial wildlife research as well,
including projects focused on alpine frog species in North America, and bears of the cloud forest in South America. Katy has a degree in marine biology.

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Together, Jeff and Katy spend much of their time traveling the globe and searching for unique stories to film and photograph. The pair specializes in expeditions to remote places very far off the beaten path. They both strongly believe that documenting our changing planet, it’s wildlife, and it’s cultures, is extremely important in today’s changing world.