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Naturalists
Naturalists
There’s the naturalist who casually mentioned that he hadn’t been back to this remote Alaskan island since living here 20 years ago for a summer to study the familial habits of bears. Or the one who told you the last time he sailed past this South Pacific island a stranger ran out and began shooting a gun at them. Or the one who tells you she lived on that uninhabited Galapagos island for a year studying interactions between giant tortoises and introduced donkeys for her PhD while gathering rain and heavy mist for drinking and only occasionally bothering to wear clothes.
They are as different as their vast experiences and come from academic, natural history, museum, medical, and exploration backgrounds. Their specialistes—ranging from archeology to zoology—are tailored to every Lindblad Expedition to give guests a variety of interests and personalities to choose from while exploring. With an industry-leading ratio of 1 staff for every 10 guests (depending on ship size), Lindblad guests have the luxury of choosing which naturalist to explore with each day to indulge their interests and learning.
And the naturalists are much more than guides. They are engaging companions, participating fully in the expedition joining guests at meals and in the lounge over drinks. In fact, Lindblad guests consistently cite the expertise and engaging company of the naturalist staff as a key reason they return to the same ships to explore new regions.
There’s the naturalist who casually mentioned that he hadn’t been back to this remote Alaskan island since living here 20 years ago for a summer to study the familial habits of bears. Or the one who told you the last time he sailed past this South Pacific island a stranger ran out and began shooting a gun at them. Or the one who tells you she lived on that uninhabited Galapagos island for a year studying interactions between giant tortoises and introduced donkeys for her PhD while gathering rain and heavy mist for drinking and only occasionally bothering to wear clothes....
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Expedition staff are subject to change.
Meet our Naturalists
Naturalist
Dennis Cornejo
Dennis has spent more than half of his life working with Lindblad Expeditions. He first studied biology in the Sonoran Desert. It was his work with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum that brought him into contact with Sven Lindblad. Dennis was working with sea turtles in Mexico, desert tadpoles in southern Arizona and evaluating various legume trees for arid lands agriculture throughout the Sonoran Desert. Sven asked him if he would be interested in working on a ship as a naturalist in Baja California… a simple ‘yes’ turned out to be perhaps the most important decision he ever made! At first, life as a Lindblad naturalist, working during the winter while on break from university, exploring Baja California while guiding and lecturing, was a positive feedback loop for his academic goals. Spending time with guests, who possessed incredible amounts of life experience and enthusiasm, soon eroded Dennis’ dreams of a career in Academia. However, during this time he earned a master’s degree with a thesis on the reproductive strategies of Sonoran Desert toads and a PhD with a dissertation on the mechanical design and biogeography of columnar cacti (large cacti including the saguaro and the cardon). For almost 40 years Dennis has explored and learned with Lindblad. At first in the Sonoran Desert, then the temperate rainforest of Southeast Alaska, the topical rainforests of South America and Oceania and many, many other places: dry to wet, hot to cold. As his world experience increased, so did Dennis’ interests… from reptiles and amphibians, to flowering plants, insects and other invertebrate and lichens. He also worked for 15 years as an Undersea Specialist diving and making videos from Antarctica to Svalbard to Papua New Guinea. Now he is out of the water and on the tundra, so what next? With Lindblad Expeditions there is no limit with the whole world to choose from!
Naturalist
Bud Lehnhausen
Bud received an undergraduate degree in wildlife biology at Colorado State University. He then immediately went to Alaska where he worked and lived for 30 years. At the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Bud studied wildlife biology and received a master's degree conducting research on four species of alcid seabird nesting on a remote island in the Gulf of Alaska. For a number of years he worked as a research biologist studying various fields, including moose/habitat relationships, songbird populations in relation to succession, tundra bird populations and migration, and woodpecker populations after natural forest fires. Since 1983, Bud has worked as a naturalist and expedition leader with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic. During these years he has traveled in the Arctic and Antarctic, temperate and tropical regions of Central and South America, Atlantic Ocean crossings, and the western South Pacific. These numerous voyages over the years have given him a chance to appreciate diversity of life and cultures which he finds fascinating. In addition to traveling, Bud is an avid natural history photographer and his wife writes children’s books on natural history illustrating them and using Bud’s photographs. Having built their own super-insulated house in Fairbanks over a 20 year period, in 2003 they relocated their family to northern Colorado. They are in the process of being owner/builders of a new energy efficient passive solar home in the foothills above Fort Collins.
Naturalist
Octavio Maravilla
Octavio was born in Mexico City and moved to La Paz at age 19, to study Marine Biology at the Baja California Sur State University. He began his field research on California sea lions, working at Los Islotes, a small rookery close to La Paz City. Later, he expanded his research to all the sea lion colonies in the Gulf of California and over the Pacific coast of the Baja California Peninsula — aside sea lions, he studied three other species of Mexican pinnipeds, harbor seals, elephant seals, and Guadalupe fur seals. His graduate work includes censuses of California sea lions in five different colonies on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula. In 1986 Octavio travelled to Paris, France, where he spent a year obtaining a degree in animal behavior. Returning to La Paz in 1987, he began research with gray whales in Mexico; a directed and coordinated international effort to do censuses with the endangered vaquita porpoise of the Gulf of California. He joined Lindblad Expeditions for a first period in 1994 until the year 2000 in Baja California. Then he engaged in further research to obtain his Ph.D., working in the Bay of La Paz, analyzing and studying the interactions between sea lions and fisheries. He obtained his degree in August 2005. Octavio rejoined Lindblad Expeditions in 2006 season working only in Baja California. He lives in La Paz, Baja California Sur, recently he retired and works teaching French at the French Alliance of La Paz.
Naturalist
Marylou Blakeslee
For the past 20 years, Marylou Blakeslee has traveled the world sharing her love of wild places. She lectures on a number of topics from the bears and wolves of the Arctic, to the leopard seals and whales of the Antarctic, as well as the turtles and fishes of the Great Barrier Reef. Most summers Marylou works as a park ranger at Glacier Bay National Park. Fall finds her guiding trips among the “ice experts,” the polar bears of Churchill, Manitoba. Her naturalist work in Antarctica, in the austral summer, provides ample opportunity to share observations on interactions of ice, climate and marine life. Late winter, Baja beckons with grey whales birthing in warm lagoons and desert wildflowers in bloom. She also leads trips to Yellowstone for a glimpse of the winter world of the wolf. Marylou Blakeslee began her involvement with the natural world through her love of drawing and painting. Her work is included in collections across the country and internationally. Leading hikes, lecturing, kayaking, snorkeling, wildlife spotting and painting are some of her favorite things to do. Come share with her the varied natural treasures and beauty this world has to offer.
Naturalist
Martin Cohen
Martin grew up in Melbourne Australia playing cricket and Australian Rules football. While growing up, to his parents’ dismay, Martin brought home and kept a menagerie of wildlife including frogs, lizards, turtles and even poisonous snakes! After successfully completing a PhD. in tropical biology, Martin has spent much of the last 25 years using various mediums to impart his knowledge and passion about the natural world to people from all walks of life. During this time, he has also conducted numerous wildlife surveys and biodiversity monitoring programs throughout Australia, South-east Asia and the Amazon rainforest, worked with community conservation groups and guided eco-tours all over Australia. Martin has also authored several books (with over 40,000 sold), researched, directed and presented wildlife information on television and radio and written countless popular wildlife articles and interpretive signs. Martin still goes into the field as often as possible, however, much of his time nowadays is spent working as a naturalist for Lindblad – National Geographic to regions all over the world.
Naturalist
Alex Searle
Born in Chile and raised in Argentina, Alex spent his childhood living in different parts of these countries and getting to know the local cultures. Alex studied Journalism at the University of Chile and did post graduate studies at UBC in Vancouver, Canada. Working as a Chilean TV producer for years, Alex worked in the news department doing research, and produced a successful late night show as well as a wildlife show that did stories all over America. Since he was a kid his life’s dream was to visit Easter Island, or Rapa Nui in the local language. He visited during his university years, together with his wife, Terangi, who was born on this unique Pacific island. Alex has worked for years with Lindblad Expeditions in Easter Island, and also works as a guide all along Chile. An avid diver and photographer, he has contributed his photos to books about Easter Island. His love for the cultural past and present of Rapa Nui, Polynesia, and other areas of South America, as well as his passion for wildlife and nature, make him a passionate guide. He is excited to share his understanding and knowledge with fellow travelers.
Naturalist
Jeff Campbell
Jeff Campbell fell in love with the ocean while attending boatbuilding school in Eastport, Maine. Since completing his MS in Marine and Estuarine Science at Western Washington University, he has worked for NOAA documenting the ecological impacts of transoceanic fiber-optic cable; the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife developing an aging method for sixgill sharks; the Lummi Tribe as a Harvest Biologist; Northwest Indian College teaching Fisheries and Wildlife Biology, and as a volunteer for the Whatcom County Marine Mammal Stranding Network. He has been involved in research developing mitigation methods for harmful algae blooms, sterilization methods for oil tanker ballast water, and techniques for screening refinery effluent for harmful ecological effects. He also served as Principle Director on a USDA-funded grant using student interns to study the impact of nutrient-rich run-off on seasonal dead-zones in Bellingham Bay. Jeff is passionate about the marine environment, particularly the northeast Pacific, and believes that the key to preserving this fragile biome is lighting the spark in others by sharing his knowledge on the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate systems. He is particularly interested in the effects of ocean acidification on the larval stages of mollusk, and arthropod larvae. Summers for the last three years have found him driving expedition landing craft and sharing the joys of whale watching with guests. A Lummi Island, Washington resident for more than 18 years, Jeff lives with his wife Penny, who has been a marine naturalist on whale watch boats in the Salish Sea for many years, and their cat, Boo.
Naturalist
Steve Backus
Born in the mountains of east Tennessee, it was easy for Steve to fall in love with the wonderful natural environment around him. What started as a childhood passion to scan the creeks and ponds for all they would reveal evolved into a studied desire to understand the world around us. Now splitting his time between North Carolina and Alaska, he finds endless wonder in these stunning places. Through his work and travels Steve has been privy to many corners of the world and loves to share what he has experienced. An infinitely curious person by nature, he is drawn to explore the environments around him and the stories they tell. Learning and sharing the ecology of how life interacts and connects is a true passion of his. As a mariner, waterbirds are of particular interest to Steve and his time as a ship’s naturalist, a captain, a point counter at migration hot-spots, a field technician, and community-science efforts has deepened his appreciation of them. Though our feathered friends are Steve’s primary area of expertise, he can be found peeking under logs and listening by swamps at night for the creeping and crawling life found underfoot. He is honored to be a part of the Lindblad team and looks forward sharing our voyages together.
Naturalist
Dana Filippini
Dana was born with a curious nature, which endures to this day. At a very young age she developed a love of wildlife and being outdoors. Although she loves all aspects of nature, it was seeing her first Humpback whale that was the impetus to pursue a career in wildlife. She received her BSc degree in Wildlife Biology and Management from the University of Rhode Island, which eventually led to a career as a biologist and naturalist. During her tenor at URI she participated in the first faunal inventory to be conducted in the Atlantic Rainforest in the State of Sergipe, Brazil. Their team, over multiple seasons worked with their Brazilian counterparts, mist netting birds, live trapping mammals and went looking for herptiles. Brazil is one of her favorite places to visit. During her off time, she works with dog rescue groups, keeps bees and enjoys most of all spending time adventuring with her partner in crime, her young granddaughter. Dana has been to many places in the world and loves being immersed in different cultures and of course looking at the native wildlife!! She is looking forward to sharing all the new adventures to come with the guests of Lindblad!
Naturalist
Hiro Kawashima
Born and raised in Ensenada, Baja California, México, Hiro´s heritage can be traced around the world, from Japanese immigrants to adventurous Finnish sailors, French entrepreneurs, and Spanish roots going back to the first settlers of the Peninsula. His love for nature came at a very young age, spending most of his summers in the waters of the Gulf of California, where his family had fished for generations. He learned to surf and free dive in his childhood and developed a deep connection with the ocean and the land, always amazed by the creatures that inhabited the surreal landscape. In 1996 he started guiding day tours in Ensenada, and in 1998 he enrolled in a Biology degree at the State University of Baja California. His first expedition as a naturalist was in 2001 and has continued ever since. His passion for learning and sharing has led him to be interested in practically everything, always trying to understand how things work and how they are interconnected. Currently, he lives in San Ignacio, the largest oasis in the Peninsula of Baja California, and when he's not working as a Naturalist, he spends his time designing and building a permaculture farm, photographing wildlife, spearfishing, surfing, building a house, and most importantly, enjoying life with his loved ones.
Naturalist
Oren Frey
Oren grew up exploring the wilds of New England and began leading others on adventures in the outdoors while a student at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has spent the better part of the past two decades pursuing opportunities to explore the world and to share its wonders with others. Oren has worked as a naturalist and kayak guide in the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, and the San Juan Islands, has led many river trips, and has worked as an instructor on wilderness travel and cultural exchange trips for youth in locations from Alaska to Ecuador. Years working as an environmental educator on Catalina Island sparked a deep love of the ocean environment and inspired him to complete a master’s degree in International Environmental Policy with a focus on marine issues. He went on to work for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and co-founded a community supported fishery. Oren later spent five years managing a non-profit program that aims to make outdoor adventure inclusive and accessible to all people. An avid adventure cyclist, he has cycled over the Pamir Highway, around Iceland, and across the Sahara. Oren is thrilled to have the opportunity to share the joy of exploration with Lindblad Guests.
Naturalist
Frankie Wilton
Frankie was born and raised on the Jersey Shore, cultivating an interest in the outdoors through countless hours spent catching estuary creatures and telling anyone willing to listen about his findings. These childhood days provided the spark for an academic career at Boston College, where he earned a degree in Environmental Studies and Communication. Through his time at university he had the chance to begin his guiding career and conduct field studies in the forests of New England and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. After college he began his endeavors into writing and photography, producing photos and written works showcasing the beauty of our planet and the urgency with which we must act to protect it. He had worked as a full-time marine naturalist on the island of Maui, honing his craft amidst the corals, seabirds, and humpbacks of the Pacific. When not out on expeditions, Frankie resides on the Jersey Shore where he guides eco-tours and continues to produce multimedia projects. His goals as a naturalist and writer are intertwined: to unfurl the hidden details of our planet’s ecology and spark a love for the natural world.
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