Naturalist/Expedition Diver

Lynn Wilbur

Lynn is a marine biologist and underwater photographer whose passion lies in the intertidal zone. Lynn’s love of the ocean began when she was just four years old after experiencing a tide pool for the first time, and she received her first scuba certification immediately after graduating from high school. Her interest in photography also started when she was a youngster, shooting black and white film with an old box camera that her mother found at a thrift store.

Lynn’s enthusiasm for diving, photography, and intertidal ecology came together when she moved from her native California to Southeast Alaska. After graduating cum laude from Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, and receiving a postgraduate diploma in marine science from the University of Otago in New Zealand, Lynn used her research on marine debris to bring awareness to her community by banding together local high school students to brainstorm solutions. She participated in groundbreaking research on sea cucumbers and sea stars, and she developed a marine science and conservation ecology curriculum at the Molly O. Ahlgren Memorial Aquarium in Sitka.

Lynn’s current research measures diversity of intertidal communities in Sitka Sound and along the desert coast of Peru. She has also photographed undersea life in the Galápagos Islands, Catalina California, the tropical north sea of Peru (a Mission Blue Hope Spot), and the Alaskan outer coast. When Lynn’s not at home with her husband in Sitka, she can be found in the south of Peru tiptoeing around sleeping sea lions, armed with a magnifying lens, and searching for elusive marine invertebrate predators.