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Welcome to Unwritten Seas, a place for marine science, conservation, research, photography, and the stories waiting beneath the surface.

At the heart of Unwritten Seas is ocean life. From cetaceans and sharks to the countless species that make marine ecosystems possible, this is a place to explore the animals beneath the surface, the environments they depend on, and the challenges they face in a changing world.

Some articles will take a closer look at scientific research and conservation issues. Others may explore animal behavior, human impacts, captivity and welfare, conservation policy, or the complicated questions that do not always have simple answers. There will also be room for field experiences, photography, personal perspective, advocacy, and the stories of individual animals whose lives can tell us something larger about their species or our relationship with wildlife.

Unwritten Seas isn’t meant to tell readers what to think about every conservation or animal welfare issue. I want it to be a place to look closely at the evidence, consider different perspectives, ask questions, acknowledge uncertainty, and have conversations about what protecting and caring for marine life actually looks like.

So, Who Am I?

My name is Bobbie, and I’m a marine biologist, mom, wife, photographer, and lifelong admirer of the ocean and the wildlife that calls it home.

For as long as I can remember, the ocean has been where my curiosity naturally went. By middle school, I had already decided that I was going to study marine biology and a desire to go to Australia for school. I had the destination picked out long before I had any real understanding of what building a career in marine science would involve.

Naturally, life had other plans.

Family losses, different career possibilities, becoming a mom, and the responsibilities that came with adulthood gradually pushed that childhood plan further into the background. Marine biology never stopped being something I cared about, but for a long time it became one of those dreams that felt increasingly difficult to turn into a real life.

Eventually, I decided that difficult did not mean impossible.

In August 2023, I returned to that goal and began pursuing my Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology. Going back to school as a nontraditional student while balancing family and everything else that comes with adult life was very different from the version I had imagined in middle school. It was also one of the best decisions I could have made. I have since completed my degree, and somewhere along the way, the childhood dream of simply wanting to work with marine animals developed into something much broader.

The more I learned, the more questions I had.

Where The Fascination Began

Some of my earliest influences probably look familiar to anyone who grew up fascinated by wildlife.

Steve Irwin was a major one. I grew up watching The Crocodile Hunter, captivated not only by the animals he encountered but by the enthusiasm he brought to learning about them. What stayed with me was his ability to make people care about animals they might otherwise fear, dislike, or misunderstand. Wildlife did not have to be cute or harmless to be worth appreciating and protecting.

That idea has followed me into marine biology, particularly in my interest in sharks. Few marine animals carry as much cultural baggage. Sharks are often reduced to the threat they might pose to people, while their biology, behavior, ecological roles, and the threats facing many shark populations receive far less attention. Learning what exists beyond those perceptions is part of what continues to draw me to them.

Orcas entered my life a little differently.

Like many people of my generation, one of my earliest introductions came through Free Willy. As a kid, Willy was simply an animal I loved. Learning that Keiko, the real orca behind the film, had his own story made that connection more complicated. His life introduced me, long before I could articulate it in scientific terms, to questions about captivity, animal welfare, rehabilitation, release, and what humans owe animals once their lives have been profoundly shaped by us.

Years later, learning about Tilikum and watching Blackfish brought many of those questions back. At the time, it was easy to see the issue primarily through the lens of right and wrong. The more I have studied marine biology, animal behavior, conservation, and research, however, the more I’ve realized how rarely wildlife issues fit neatly into those categories.

That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped having strong feelings about them. It means I’ve become more interested in examining why I hold those views, what the evidence actually supports, where uncertainty exists, and whether new information should change the way I think and the conversations we have about these issues.

Passion brought me here but science has taught me to keep asking questions.

Why I Created Unwritten Seas

TFor a while, I struggled to figure out exactly what I wanted a space like this to be.

I knew I wanted somewhere to explore questions beyond the limits of a class assignment, social media caption, or headline. Somewhere I could start with curiosity, follow the research, and still leave room for discussion when the answer wasn’t simple.

But I also knew I didn’t want everything to be research-heavy.

I wanted somewhere for conservation and advocacy. Somewhere for photography and experiences from the field. Somewhere for my own thoughts and perspectives. Somewhere I could examine difficult questions surrounding cetacean welfare without pretending every issue has a simple answer.

And sometimes, I just want to tell you about an animal.

Over the years, there have been individual animals whose stories have stayed with me. Animals that sparked my curiosity, changed the way I thought about an issue, or made me want to learn more about the species they represented. Some are animals I’ve encountered myself; others I’ve only come to know through their histories.

Their stories may not always fit neatly into a research article or conservation debate. But an individual life can sometimes make a much larger issue tangible in a way that statistics alone cannot. Those stories are part of why I care about this field in the first place, and I wanted this space to have room for them too.

Eventually, I realized I wasn’t trying to create a science blog, an advocacy page, a photography portfolio, or a personal journal.

I wanted a place where all of those things could meet.

That’s Unwritten Seas.

Sometimes that will mean digging into an issue I already care deeply about. Sometimes it may mean discovering that the evidence complicates what I thought I knew. Other times, it may simply mean sharing a photograph, an experience, or the story of an animal worth remembering.

My interests naturally pull me toward cetaceans and sharks, but they don’t exist separately from the ecosystems around them. Understanding these animals means also understanding their prey, habitats, changing oceans, human interactions, fisheries, policy, pollution, climate, and the countless other species and processes that make marine ecosystems function.

Where We Go From Here

Unwritten Seas is still at the beginning.

There will be articles about cetaceans and sharks, conservation and animal welfare, human impacts on marine ecosystems, scientific research, policy, and the complicated relationship between people and wildlife.

There will be research that deserves a closer look and questions where the available evidence doesn’t provide an easy answer.

There will be advocacy.

There will be photographs and experiences from the field.

And there will be stories about individual animals. Not simply because every animal needs to represent a larger issue but because sometimes a life is worth knowing and a story is worth telling.

I don’t want Unwritten Seas to be a place where every issue has to end with a predetermined answer.

I want it to be a place where caring about ocean life is the reason to look more closely, not a reason to stop asking questions.

Whether you’re here because you’re a scientist, student, conservationist, photographer, lifelong ocean enthusiast, or simply someone who saw an orca or shark once and wanted to know more, you’re welcome here.

There are still so many stories beneath the surface.

Some we are only beginning to understand.

Some haven’t been told yet.

And some are simply waiting to surface.

Bobbie Cost
Marine Biologist & Creator of Unwritten Seas