Kim Nesbitt

"I grew up in New Hampshire and spent a lot of time outside in the White Mountains, which are gorgeous. It was really nice, but even then, I was always looking for something a little more.

I decided to go to school in Colorado where I got to experience even bigger mountains. Then, I had the opportunity to study abroad. I spent some time in East Africa, in Zanzibar. I had always had an interest in marine biology, but never had the opportunity to dive growing up. While working on a small marine protected area in Zanzibar for a few months, I learned to free dive and did some rangering on the island to remove fish nets off of the corals. I enjoyed it, but you only have about a minute or so underwater when you are breath holding. So, I decided to go and get certified in scuba diving.

At first, I thought diving was really only in the tropics. So, I travelled to the tropics of the world anytime I had the opportunity, and I did a lot of it by myself. It was really cool for a while, but then it got depressing. A lot of the tropics are not doing very well — you see a lot of destruction and really unhealthy areas, and it’s an expensive activity to look at dead stuff. Then, I had a friend introduce me to the kelp forests in Monterey. That blew my mind. It was truly amazing to see an area that was actually healthy. From there, I spent some time diving in the Puget Sound area and British Columbia. Eventually I reached Alaska, where I found the ecosystem was doing even better. That really re-instilled my love of the oceans, and my understanding of how robust they can be.

After that, every time I worked in Southeast Alaska, I’d be way more sad leaving than I’d ever been leaving anywhere else. At first, it was my summer home, but I quickly made the decision that I never really wanted to leave."

– Kim Nesbitt, biologist, underwater photographer, expedition guide

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