Tamsen Peeples

Tamsen was born and raised amongst the wild woods and shorelines of Juneau, Alaska. The ocean and mountains became an integral part of all aspects of her life, and she has never been far from both. Eager to follow her childhood dream of becoming a marine biologist Tamsen left Alaska to study at the University of California Santa Cruz. There she furthered her love of the ocean by interning at the Alaska Sealife Center researching harbor seal/vessel interactions, conducting field studies along the coast of California, and travelling to Corsica to study cuttlefish. After graduating with a degree in marine biology she spent a year volunteering with the University of Auckland's Leigh Marine Lab in New Zealand assisting on several graduate and doctorate studies.

She returned to Alaska and in 2015 began work with Dr. Michael Stekoll at the University of Alaska Southeast conducting a seaweed mariculture feasibility study. With the methods set by the study she then went on to design, build, and operate the first two Alaskan commercial seaweed hatcheries for Blue Evolution, first in Juneau and then in Kodiak. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Fisheries under Dr. Stekoll through the University of Alaska Fairbanks with her thesis focused on reducing labor, plastic waste, and expense in kelp hatcheries. She recently built and now operates a third commercial kelp hatchery, this time for UAF, and conducts collaborative research with famers across the state.