Ellie Schmidt is a visual artist from Colorado. She fell in love with the ocean at a young age and has since explored it in any way she can, from making ceramic fish mobiles to shooting short films, and studying marine ecology in Australia. She hopes to be a storyteller for places that are mysterious and hard to reach, to help document and advocate for our threatened natural world. She is currently working on a film project in North Carolina, and hopes to travel to Hawaii soon to hang out with the coral reefs. See Ellie’s 2015 AOOS Film Contest entry “I follow Rivers” and more of her work at ellieschmidt.com.