I’m Blake.

I grew up in the middle of the Kansas prairie- the furthest from the ocean as you can get in the continental United States, but I always had a passion for the sea. For me, the ocean was a magical unknown, a place of mystery that I desperately wanted to explore.

I got the chance when my family began teaching English in Egypt, and the Red Sea is where I first fell in love. The turquoise blue water, the abundance of life below the surface, the ocean stole my heart and never let go.

I moved to Hawaii in 2014 where I followed my dreams of becoming a water woman. I worked on a tour boat photographing Oahu’s wild spinner dolphins, and when my husband got military orders to move to Nevada, I continued to follow my passions in the desert. It was there that I became a PADI divemaster and freediving instructor.

I was teaching free diving courses and leading scuba dives back on the beautiful island of Oahu for a few years until I severely injured my eardrums while rescuing a student. I thought that my career was over, but instead it pivoted in a wonderful and unexpected way.

I began training as a shark safety diver specializing in tiger shark behavior. There is so much beauty in

having the privilege of gathering people of all ages, genders, and socioeconomic levels together to face their fears and take part in a magnificent adventure. However, I can only take 6 people diving with sharks at a time and I wanted to reach a larger audience, so I went back to school to pursue my Master’s Degree in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University. With this path I aim to use my unique blend of animal behavior and adventure writing to introduce our last wild places on this earth to others who might not have the opportunity to explore those places in person. Humans protect what they love, and they love what they understand. With my work I aim to connect people from around the world to the unique and wonderful species who also call this planet home.