Emily Newton

Emily was raised in the mountains of Central Oregon, where she spent much of her time on the back of a horse. Her fascination with marine science began with family vacations to British Columbia, where she explored tidepools, captured sculpins, inspected limpets, and watched resident killer whales hunt, play, and rest in Johnstone Strait.

Noticing her affinity for the sea, Emily’s parents helped her to become SCUBA certified at the age of eleven. Family dive vacations introduced her to the complex beauty of coral reefs, mesmerizing kelp forests, and the incredible lives led by fish and strange invertebrates. Some of Emily’s favorite moments underwater have been those spent with razor fish darting into the sand, tiny blennies burrowed between coral polyps, and a female great white cruising overhead.

During her undergraduate research, Emily discovered the fusion of SCUBA and science while studying the impacts of invasive lionfish on native fish populations in the Bahamas. Following her graduation from Oregon State University with a B.S. degree in Marine Biology, she worked for the University of North Carolina leading scientific dive operations to survey fish assemblages on shipwrecks and rocky ledges.

Now residing near Beaufort, NC, Emily has been an undersea specialist with Lindblad Expeditions since 2017. Throughout her career, she hopes to encourage the increased protection of the salty and soggy parts of our planet by introducing people to the wonders of marine life and helping develop experiences that inspire curiosity, hope, and change.