Undersea
Undersea Specialists
Nearly every expedition aboard the fleet sails with an undersea specialist who serves as our eyes and ears below the waves, capturing photos and videos and bringing our guests firsthand perspectives of the marine world. Throughout the voyage, they film their dives and manipulate high-definition underwater imaging equipment such as Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to reveal surprises in the ocean deep—from bright purple corals in Alaska to delicate sea stars in the frigid waters off the Antarctic Peninsula.
Their footage is shown on screens in the lounge during daily recaps, allowing guests to share in the excitement of underwater exploration and get a rare look at marine species in their habitat. In many destinations, they also accompany guests on snorkeling excursions and outings by glass bottom boat to interpret the marine world in real time.
Nearly every expedition aboard the fleet sails with an undersea specialist who serves as our eyes and ears below the waves, capturing photos and videos and bringing our guests firsthand perspectives of the marine world. Throughout the voyage, they film their dives and manipulate high-definition underwater imaging equipment such as Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to reveal surprises in the ocean deep—from bright purple corals in Alaska to delicate sea stars in the frigid waters off the Antarctic Peninsula. ...
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Meet Our Undersea Specialists
Undersea Specialist
Jason Heilmann
Growing up in northern California, Jason was surrounded by the incomparable nature of the Pacific Northwest. While attending university there, Jason met and eventually married an Ecuadorian woman who happened to be from a small group of islands off the coast of western South America. It was thus that Jason’s path led him to Ecuador and, in time, to one of the most revered natural environments on earth, the Galápagos Islands. Having found his niche in the Galápagos, and eventually becoming a professional SCUBA diver, Jason volunteered as a dive assistant on various scientific projects. Developing his enthusiasm for nature, in 1999 Jason took the only logical course: the Galápagos National Park naturalist program. Interpretation of the Galápagos, whether in the underwater realm or on land, has become a passion with Jason. Eventually he would also work as a naturalist in Alaska and British Columbia. Jason and his family also had the opportunity to take a year-long sabbatical to Sweden to continue their education in ecology and environmental communication. After almost 20 years, Jason still resides on the Galápagos Islands with his wife Graciela and son Matias. He received his Photo Instructor certification in a training workshop in 2010. Developed and taught by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions photographers, the workshop equipped him with the insight and skills necessary to help you better understand your camera and the basics of composition—to better capture the moments at the heart of your Lindblad-National Geographic expedition.
Undersea Specialist
Chris Cook
A self confessed “animal nerd,” Chris falls under many titles: marine biologist, marine interpreter, dive master, science communicator, and naturalist. Chris was lucky enough to grow up on the East Coast of Australia, where there are no shortage of different coastal environments to explore. While growing up, his friends would be surfing while he would be under the waves, snorkel and mask on looking for fish and all the weird and wonderful creatures he couldn’t get enough of. This love of the ocean lead to him completing a Bachelor of Science in 2005. His passion for the ocean and connecting people with its inhabitants landed him in various roles in different zoos and aquariums, but it was the "wild" that was always Chris’s true calling. After working as a whale watching tour guide off the West Coast of Canada and moving back to Australia to work on the Great Barrier Reef, Chris never looked back. Since 2009 Chris’s specialty has been giving presentations on and taking people out to tropical environments, in particular to different parts of the Great Barrier Reef region. In recent years Chris has spent more time living on tropical islands or on ships cruising up and down the reef than on land. Chris’s passion for photography, nature’s creatures, and scuba diving has taken him from diving in the snow in Canada one week to diving in Mexico the next. He has followed his passion to develop his photography and interpretative skills through out Southeast Asia, all along the East Coast of Australia and to the magical Kimberley region off the west coast. The only passions of Chris’s not mentioned are reptiles, birds, insects, dogs, the entire macro world, and of course talking about all of the above over good coffee!
Undersea Specialist
James Hyde
Pacific Northwest born James Hyde grew up immersed in the Salish Sea, on Vashon Island with Seattle as his backdrop. A passionate traveler from a young age, James explored four continents before finishing his degree at Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment. A transformative visit to Australia's Great Barrier Reef sparked his fascination with marine life, particularly underwater ecology and scuba diving. This passion led him to a Seattle dive shop, and a local independent middle school where he shared his love for the ocean with the students and assisted with the Travel Study program, thus beginning his journey toward expedition travel. In 2016, a childhood friend introduced James to Lindblad Expeditions, where he began as a Dive Buddy. Over the years, he expanded his role across the fleet, learning from each environment and the diverse ecosystems the ships explored. Eventually, he became an Undersea Specialist, a role that deepened his love for the ocean and his commitment to conservation. James is passionate about inspiring others to care for the unique ecosystems thriving in protected waters and advancing Lindblad's contributions to scientific research. Whether it's monitoring ocean plastics or engaging in citizen science projects, James is dedicated to furthering marine conservation efforts in partnership with leading universities and research institutes worldwide.
Undersea Specialist
Maya Santangelo
Maya was born and raised in Southern California, where her curiosity for the natural world was encouraged from an early age. Relocating to Sydney, Australia with her family at 11 years old, she learned to scuba dive, eventually becoming a PADI Instructor. Her fascination for the underwater world undoubtedly fueled her interest to study marine biology at James Cook University. Working as a professional guide in some of the world’s top dive destinations, including Palau and Mexico’s Guadalupe Island and Revillagigedo Archipelago, Maya realized a passion for sharing her love for the ocean with others, and the value of citizen science in the dive industry. In 2016, Maya was awarded the Rolex Scholarship for Australasia by the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society. Diving around the world for a year to work alongside leaders in dive expeditions, marine research and conservation, her experiences as a Rolex Scholar proved to be formative in cementing her passions and future career directions to make a difference for our blue planet. With an underlying drive to explore and understand life in the ocean, Maya’s aquatic endeavors have seen her diving and working on projects in a variety of marine environments across all seven continents. Whether counting the arms of giant sea stars in Antarctica, or identifying manta rays in French Polynesia, Maya is happiest when underwater. As part of the Lindblad Expeditions team, Maya looks forward to each dive as a new opportunity to share what would otherwise be out of sight-out of mind, and contribute to conservation through science, communication and education.
Undersea Specialist
Christine West
Christine is an Explorer's Club Fellow, Polar Expedition Diver, Expedition Leader and conservation photographer and videographer. She has worked as a professional diver around the world for over 18 years dedicated to ocean education, exploration and safety. Christine proudly became a USCG certified 100-ton Captain in 2017. She now spends over six months per year in the field documenting and sharing stories about places that are rarely seen and yet are rapidly changing due to the warming of the Earth such as the High Canadian Arctic and Antarctica. Christine uses a variety of tools such as underwater cameras, drones and ROVs to create imagery that serve as voices for ecosystems that need immediate protection. It is important to her to not only document species presence and abundance, but to share their stories and behaviors in a memorable way that drives wider audiences, including inland communities, to care about places that may not be in their backyard but to which they influence and are connected. Christine's passion to share the lesser-known stories continually pushes her to dive the coldest, sometimes murkiest, most remote areas on the planet. Christine was fortunate to grow up in the Pacific Northwest along the shores of the Puget Sound. However, she has called the Big Island of Hawaii home since 2014 and plans to continue building her future with her husband there.
Undersea Specialist
Brett Garner
Brett is a photographer, marine biologist, and educator from California. He is happiest underwater with camera in hand working to inspire marine conservation. He has worked and traveled extensively throughout the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East. His underwater work has taken him under the ice in Alaska and also through some of the world’s warmest seas. He earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA in marine biology and his master’s from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in marine biology and conservation. While at Scripps, Brett received a Rapid Ocean Conservation Grant from the Waitt Foundation to produce the multimedia project, Kia Over There , which follows a group of Fijian spear-fishermen and exposes the challenges they face to protect their reef. He followed this work with projects featuring traditional landowners in the Peruvian Amazon and nomadic fishermen in Malaysian Borneo. During the 2017 bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef, Brett was on site documenting the changes daily. His work has been featured in publications including the New York Times , the BBC , the Sydney Morning Herald , and the Outdoor Journal. He lives on the coast in Western Australia where he can enjoy the ocean even when he isn’t working.
Undersea Specialist
Adam Maire
Explorers Club Member, Polar Expedition Diver, Naturalist, and Historian, Adam Maire is dedicated to exploring around the globe with a goal of researching, documenting, and teaching others about the beauty, the power and the importance of the earth's wild places. With degrees in Animal Science, History and a Scuba Diving Instructor certification, he is passionate about finding extraordinary ways to help others understand the links between the worlds that exist both above and below the surface of the ocean. Growing up working outside on a cattle ranch in Nebraska, Adam's love for nature started early in life. Through college he continued to learn about the natural world and sought out jobs that aided in his thirst for knowledge. After college, he joined the U.S. Army where he served as a Team Leader in an Airborne Infantry unit. After leaving the military, Adam began documenting the underwater world through photography and videography from the Arctic Ocean all the way to Antarctica and many places in between. Spending 6 months per year in the field, he works to educate people about these remote places and the important impact they have at a global level. Every part of this earth is connected through the five oceans. Adam currently lives in Hawaii with his wife where they are both pursuing master's degrees in marine biology with a hope to focus their research on issues impacting both the Arctic and Antarctica underwater. In his free time, Adam volunteers with the non-profit Project Recover with a mission to find and repatriate the remains of missing American Service members.
Undersea Specialist
Anne Hedlund
Anne has been diving around the world for about 20 years, starting in Mexico and continuing to the darker and colder waters of Sweden, her home country. The interest of diving started when she was growing up in the archipelago outside Stockholm, and she loves to go to remote and unique places to see the differences of the eco systems, and she always brings her camera to show the people around her the beauty that lies beneath. Some of her favorite spots includes the Galapagos, Malpelo, Socorro, Azores and of course Sweden. Her need for knowledge about marine biology started off early when she realized how much more you can get out of a dive if you know about animal behavior, ecology and biology, and she also loves to talk about this to whoever interested in listening. Conservation is very important to her. Anne has been working alongside marine biologists in a project in Mozambique documenting fish and underwater environment to show the impact of overfishing, which has been quite severe in the area. Her background in hospitality took her to Svalbard for a couple of seasons, a place that went straight to her heart. Living and working with polar bears and arctic foxes as your closest neighbors was amazing and every trip to the Arctic just increases her love for the region.
Undersea Specialist
Megan Wehrenberg
Megan is a scientist, dive instructor, and captain that has worked in the field of research, conservation and experiential education for 15 years. Growing up in Florida, she fell in love with the ocean at an early age and has been working and playing on the water for her whole adult life, on whale watching boats, research vessels, exploring remote waters on her own sailboat, and spending as much time as possible underwater. She received her BS in Environmental Science from University of Florida and her MS in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Labs where she studied phycology and the physiology of highly cultivated seaweeds. She spent 7 years managing a reef monitoring program in California and Baja California. During this time, she engaged and empowered a passionate cadre of citizen scientists and commercial fishermen to conduct underwater research for marine management purposes. She taught scientific diving for years at the university level helping biologists learn techniques for safely conducting underwater research. In recent years she has moved away from scientific research and has developed a deep passion for helping people to learn about and connect with the environment, working to create lifelong environmental stewards. A few years ago Megan set sail from her California home to explore the remote islands of Mexico with her husband and dog and fell madly in love with the Baja Peninsula where they ended up settling. When not voyaging with Lindblad, Megan lives at and runs a small off-grid eco-hotel she built with her husband on the beach in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Here she explores the coastal desert with her family, surfs, sails, grows food, and works passionately with her community’s zero waste program.
Undersea Specialist
Hailey Shchepanik
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised along the icy shores of Lake Superior, Hailey is equally enthralled exploring her own backyard as she is in new and unfamiliar environments. As an avid SCUBA diver, hiker, and biologist, her curiosity and commitment to protecting marine ecosystems have led her to explore coastlines and coral reefs across the globe. Hailey is a Scientific Diver and Diving Safety Officer at the Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia. She holds an MSc in Marine Sciences from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, where she studied the impacts of invasive species in the Red Sea. Her diverse career spans work as a Research Biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a Scientific Diver with the U.S. National Park Service, and a Research Assistant at both Cape Breton University and the University of Belize. Hailey is a member of The Explorers Club and has been recognized by the WINGS WorldQuest Women of Discovery Awards and the Women Divers Hall of Fame for her contributions to science and exploration. With Lindblad Expeditions, Hailey is excited to share her knowledge and passion for the ocean, inviting guests to connect more deeply with the Blue Planet through stories, science, and firsthand experiences. experiences.
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