Jeff Milisen is a naturalist whose varied and ecologically minded projects have afforded him opportunities to travel into some of the ocean’s wildest habitats. For example, he spent 3 months picking up marine debris in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Last year, he was diving for an experimental project that sought to mitigate the environmental issues of aquaculture by moving the operation between 10 and 70 miles offshore. Most recently, he received his Master of Science from the University of Hawaii in Molecular Biochemistry for the study of venom variability in cone snails.
Such projects have inspired a love for the ocean that extends into his leisure activity. He has lately been spending time promoting pelagic night dives (popularly called blackwater) from the island of Oahu. Such dives highlight the epi- and meso-pelagic plankton communities that blend together near the surface after the sun goes down. He has also documented many of Hawaii’s lesser-known wrecks and has discovered 2 World War II era plane wrecks around Oahu and one at Midway Atoll. The work for which he is most celebrated is his intimate portraits of Hawaii’s sharks. Good luck has shined on Jeff to bring him encounters with every Hawaiian species from unusual cookie cutters to infamous tigers and even a pair of gargantuan whale sharks.
Jeff’s images can be found in various magazines, books and websites. He currently maintains a personal page that can be accessed via http://milisenphotography.yolasite.com.
