My Upbringing:
For The Love Of Animals
My love for the ocean started at a young age when my family and I vacationed along the rugged north coast of CA. I remembered my first feelings of the ocean were centered around fear that the ocean would sweep me away. I enjoyed standing on the bluffs above the pounding surf at the Sea Ranch looking out into the deep blue sea but I rarely wanted to venture down to the water line. But something shifted as I remember being mesmerized while watching the harbor seals playing in the surf below and soon I developed a love of tide pooling and learning all about ocean animals. I longed for our family vacations along the coast. Growing up in Sacramento, CA I only saw the ocean once or twice a year and yearned for wanting to spend more time close to the sea. I eventually knew I wanted to explore beneath the surface of the sea, both for fun and professionally as a marine explorer and study marine biology. I have now devoted both my professional career and personal free- time educating and sharing stories of our amazing water planet. I was hooked on everything ocean! — Holly Lohuis
My Career: Ocean Connections
Holly S. Lohuis is a marine biologist, marine educator and naturalist in the Santa Barbara area, working for a variety of organizations including: Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, Santa Barbara Maritime Museum’s Ocean Connections, Island Packers-boat concessionaire to the Channel Islands National Park and The Ritz-Carlton Barcara’s Jean-Michel Cousteau Ambassadors of the Environment program. Throughout the work she does, Holly shares important ecological facts on why ocean health is critical for the sustainability of our water planet.
Holly has appeared in many of Jean-Michel Cousteau’s documentaries, including co-star of an IMAX film, ‘Secret Ocean 3D, launched in 2015. She is also featured as a diver and on camera biologist in the eleven hours of the PBS series, “Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures.”
With a degree in Aquatic Biology from UC Santa Barbara and experience in the ocean realm around the world, she is an eloquent and popular speaker on the beauty and crises facing our water planet. Holly is also a PADI Dive Master and Open Water SCUBA Instructor.
As a member of Jean-Michel Cousteau’s expedition team for over 20 years, Holly acts as a liaison between the team and scientists and is responsible for confirming the factual accuracy of Ocean Futures Society’s documentaries and publications. She has worked full-time with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s marine conservation organization, Ocean Futures Society from 2002-2018.
Holly has also been a marine educator since 1992. For nearly a decade she worked as diver/naturalist with Island Packers, the Channel Islands National Park boat concessionaire and was the education coordinator for their floating classroom programs. She then moved on to a more global arena, working with Passage Productions-Live Dive organization on cruise ships in the Caribbean, Pacific and Mediterranean. She was the on-site marine biologist at the eco-resort, Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort, for eighteen months where she shared her wealth of knowledge and passion about the importance of protecting our water planet for future generations with guests and the local villagers.
She has taught thousands of children and adults about the wonders and fragility of the marine environment and the importance of protecting our water planet for future generations.
For her educational outreach efforts, Holly was honored in 2009 with the Hall of Fame award from the San Juan School district in her hometown Sacramento, California.
My Hope: Inspiring Conservation
In a time when we are witnessing and documenting global changes at an alarming rate, we need to prepare the leaders of tomorrow to feel connected to the natural world and to appreciate the whole interdependence of the diversity of life in what makes our planet habitable. Holly’s inspirational talk will remind us that small actions can lead to big changes. We need to be that motivating force to strive for more ocean education both locally and all around the world.
With the desire to raise awareness, inspire action and motivate change, Holly provides school presentations and assemblies, is an inspirational speaker, motivating us all to seek our personal intimate connection to our aquatic world in hopes of inspiring us all to be ocean protectors.