Young Ocean Explorers

Our mission is to inspire kids to love our ocean through great stories.

Steve is an underwater cameraman who left his construction business 9 years ago to pursue his passion of creating underwater stories. He is best known for filming underwater footage of orca and is the only person to have captured footage of an orca picking up a rays by the tip of it's tail. He has had the privilege of filming things such as: hundreds of sharks, packs of feeding marlin and many species of whales and dolphins.

Riley is 15 years old. In 2013 she completed a school project on turtles and plastic, which was the inspiration behind Young Ocean Explorers … putting her life on a very different trajectory. She was only 12 when she swam with her first shark!

Young Ocean Explorers Riley goes on fun adventures with her dad and has many incredible stories of encounters with sea creatures including orca, whales and turtles. Together they aim to get kids the world over enthused about the beauty and diversity of our marine life. Their passion is to create stories to inspire kids to love our ocean. They have produced 20 episodes of the show, in NZ, the Cook Islands and on the Great Barrier reef. Their aim is to continue create more episodes and get them to an international audience.

• Steve’s footage has appeared on BBC, National Geographic, Discovery TV and many other international channels, as well as the game changing documentary ‘Blackfish’, that has changed the way the world views whales and dolphins in captivity.
• In 2015 Riley was the youngest ever recipient of Leo Ducker Award. The award recognises New Zealanders who have made a significant contribution to NZ’s underwater environment.
• Steve and Riley love giving public presentations and during 2015/2016 spoke to over 20 000 people including this TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzA_CTkn7vk

• https://www.youngoceanexplorers.co.nz