Tristan Ray-Wilks

Tristan grew up in British Columbia, Canada, and currently resides on the coastline. His childhood featured several trips each week to local beaches, fields, forests and swamps. While earning a college diploma in adventure tourism, Tristan developed a passion for protecting his surrounding environment, leading him to initiate projects, such as cleanups, whilst on canoeing, hiking and biking trips. Inevitably, he pursued university studies in environmental resource management and environmental sciences on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Through various jobs, Tristan eventually found his passion - ecotourism. He has been a wildlife guide for the past eleven years and will probably continue guiding for the rest of his life. As he says, “Through sparking fascination and excitement, we are able to create an emotional attachment to what we experience. Creating such an attachment will determine how well we treat this Earth we all call home.”. You will probably find Tristan around the ship with a big, beguiling smile on his face as he is in one of his happy places, Antarctica.

Tristan also sits on the board of directors for the Cetus Research and Conservation Society (cetussociety.org), a marine-based education stewardship that focuses on the safety of all marine mammals inhabiting Vancouver Island’s inside passage.

To relax, Tristan turns to the sea as a photographer and avid freediver.