Jennifer Hayes

Jennifer Hayes is an aquatic biologist and photojournalist focusing on freshwater and ocean environments from the tropics to the polar regions. She is a contributing photographer, videographer, author and speaker for National Geographic Partners. Jennifer grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York and began observing aquatic life in the ponds, creeks and nearby Lake Ontario with a mask, snorkel and her horse. Obsessed with what was happening below the surface and out of

An African elephant uses its trunk as a snorkel to breathe as it walks along the bottom of a river in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.

Her aquatic career began in the biological sciences. Her passion for elasmobranchs and living primitive fishes lead to graduate degrees in zoology and marine ecology documenting shark finning and commercial shark landings in the North West Atlantic under professor Dr. Eugenie Clark (aka the Shark Lady) at the University of Maryland, College Park. After a tenure as a Washington DC Aquatic Environmental Consultant, she returned to field research. Her doctoral studies at State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry focused on telemetry, habitat, and population dynamics of sturgeon, a threatened group of fishes clinging by a thread to this planet due to habitat loss and harvest for caviar markets. As adjunct faculty, she taught comparative anatomy, evolution and fisheries biology. Her interest in science communication and conservation of endangered species was a catalyst to reach beyond research to share science through storytelling and imagery.

Jennifer is an award-winning photographer (Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Siena Awards, Communication Arts, Natures Best), contributor, editor and author of numerous publications and books on marine environments. She is a recipient of the SUNY ESF Presidents Medal for natural history, a trustee of the Shark Research Institute, Explorer Club National Fellow, Honorary editor and contributor or Ocean Geographic Magazine and Principal Photographer for Elysium Artists for Antarctic, Arctic Expeditions and Coral Triangle Expeditions. Her work has been featured on NPR, CNN, ABC Good Morning America, National Geographic TV, Wild and Disney Channel. Jennifer is a speaker for the National Geographic Live Series presenting Coral Kingdoms and Empires of Ice to an international audience.

A harp seal pup peers beneath the sea ice looking for its mother in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Jennifer believes that as stakeholders in the storytelling of Earth we need to bring hard and sometimes seemingly hopeless truths to the table but it is equally important that we share hope, beauty, resilience and science. We need investors in change and investors need hope. She is committed to promoting collaboration in ocean storytelling and providing a voice and platform for the Next-Generation Ocean. As a journalist, Jennifer discovered that you can leave a story but some stories do not leave you –She remains embedded in long-form storytelling in decade-plus commitment to Sturgeon: conservation, caviar and keeping the dinosaur fish swimming and Harp Seals in the Gulf of St Lawrence: A Nursery on Thin Ice.

Jennifer Hayes lives with her husband and partner in the sea, David Doubilet, in the Thousand Island Region of the St Lawrence River in Clayton, NY.

BOOKS:
2018 Elysium Heart of the Coral Triangle, a collaboration
2016 Elysium Artist for the Arctic, a collaboration
2014 Fragile, Living Oceans with Bernardo Sambra et. al., a collaboration
2013 Elysium, Shackleton Antarctic Visual Epic, a collaboration
2009 Raja Ampat Through the Lens Of, Conservation International, a collaboration
2009 Face to Face with Sharks, with Jennifer Hayes, National Geographic Books

RECENT EXHIBITION TOURS:
2019 Elysium Trilogy, China: Beijing, Shanghai, Chendu
2019 Australia Underwater: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth
2017 Monaco Institute of Oceanography: Beneath Tubbataha, Philippines
2014 Fragile, Living Oceans, Peru
2011 Celebrate the Sea, Singapore

Jennifer Hayes

Jennifer Hayes

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