The Black Hills of South Dakota provided 28 years of fresh air, adventure, and an unreasonable amount of pine trees. A stint working for a global bicycle company led to a lot of pedaling, globe-trotting, and occasionally pretending to be better at mountain biking than reality allowed.

Then came a plot twist: a biology degree. This academic detour included tracking wolves in the frozen Boundary Waters (where the wolves were clearly better at winter survival), wrangling wild black bears in Minnesota (okay, more like cautiously observing them), and researching pilot whales in the Canary Islands (because who wouldn’t want an excuse to hang out in paradise?).

The ocean called loudly enough to drown out everything else, sparking a move in 2020 to finish a marine science degree, officially earned in 2023. Becca worked with whale-watching companies in Hawaii and the San Juan Islands, WA, has turned a love of whales into something resembling a professional obsession. Talking about whales? Always game. Just be warned: it’s hard to stop once the blowhole puns start flowing.

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