This story appeared October 6 in my Forbes column. You can sign up here to read my twice-monthly Forbes stories on the intersection of travel and science. A flurry of excitement rippled through whale enthusiasts when two rare, all-white, baby humpbacks were spotted by tourists in the Kingdom of Tonga […]
The Dudgeon walking shark is only the 10th known species of this kind of unusual fish.
By Brianna Randall, published in National Geographic. Photo by Ryan Daly. When Turawa Hakeem caught a bull shark near Lagos, Nigeria last summer, the Ghanaian captain had no idea his crew was reeling a record winner onto his wooden fishing boat. The eight-foot-long female had made an epic journey of at […]
Can new rules keep tourists and whales safe in Baja, Mexico? By Brianna Randall, published May 27, 2025 in The Guardian. Photo by Andrea Izzotti/Alamy. Just after sunrise in the small village of La Ventana in Baja California Sur, the beach is bustling with wetsuit-clad tourists. They climb into Mexican […]
Skip The Serengeti Crowds—Visit Southern Tanzania For A Wilder Safari Less visited national parks in Tanzania like Nyerere and Ruaha offer intimate safaris and up-close encounters with Africa’s wildlife. Story by Brianna Randall | Photos by Rob Roberts I faced Africa’s largest wildlife reserve from a small wooden platform fifteen […]
Saving the Sagebrush Biome Scientists say it’s time to flip the script to conserve what’s left of the shrinking sagebrush biome FROM ATOP A RISE IN SOUTHWEST MONTANA, silver-colored sagebrush rolls away in every direction. Pronghorn and elk graze on bunchgrasses, while yarrow and paintbrush peek above the bushes. Cold, clear creeks wind through the steppe, forming […]
One family treks off the beaten path, on the lookout for some truly special encounters with nature. My 10-year-old son spotted it first as we snorkeled in Taha’a’s sunset-lit lagoon. I saw Talon dive abruptly, yellow fins flashing, before noticing the creature gliding below us with its enormous half-moon mouth […]
Humans have driven sharks to the brink of extinction, but it’s not too late to save them.
Polynesian women are practicing the ancient art of traditional navigation and inspiring seafaring communities around the globe to do the same. By Brianna Randall, published in SAIL Magazine On a recent voyage from Tahiti to Hawaii, Ka’iulani Murphy was starting to get nervous. She was nearing the end of the […]
Sailing Baja: Second Chances in the Sea of Cortez By Brianna Randall The last time my husband and I met friends to sail out of La Paz, Mexico, all hell broke loose. A decade ago, Rob and I arrived in Baja with one giant backpack each, ready to hitchhike across […]
Hitchhiking Around Paradise In Rurutu Beneath a grapefruit tree on the road that rings the Polynesian island of Rurutu, my six-year-old daughter stuck out her thumb. The first car, a Mini-Cooper, stopped and the driver greeted us in Tahitian. “Ia orana! My name is Tom. Where would you like to […]
A Sailor’s Reunion Before the Race to Alaska By Brianna Randall, published in SAIL magazine The brothers came to our hotel after dinner, the summer sun still shining bright above Victoria, British Columbia. They were men now, though I could see the echoes of the boys they were below the […]
Staring Down Sharks in the South Pacific In the heart of the Tuamotus, I jumped into shark-infested waters—and found awe, peace and the power to face my deepest fear. The outgoing tide shot us through the narrow pass at 10 knots, spitting our C&C 43 into the beatific blue of […]
From drifting anchorless overnight to dragging toward a buddy boat at 1 a.m., here are the blunders that made me better at sailing.
Hitchhiking the high seas of the Pacific as volunteer crew is an adventurous and inexpensive way to see the world. We sailed into the Kingdom of Tonga at dawn after five days at sea. The verdant shores looked like broccoli tops through the wet haze. Huddled under my rain jacket, […]
The largest atoll in French Polynesia, Rangiroa is a laid-back island paradise full of underwater wonders Our family spent three weeks exploring Rangiroa this winter, an island 200 miles northeast of Tahiti. We snorkeled with sharks, dove with dolphins, and combed deserted shorelines for shells and sea glass. It was […]
How To Survive Your First Trip To Black Rock City By Brianna Randall Last week my husband and I pedaled our rusty bikes into the center of Burning Man’s Black Rock City, a temporary, intentional gathering of 80,000 people in the middle of Nevada’s desert. It felt like entering another […]
Spinnakers, Sweat, and Survival: Three women embrace chaos and camaraderie on a 750-mile wilderness race to Alaska. By Brianna Randall, published in Cruising World Magazine I held my breath as I pulled up the sock to unfurl our spinnaker in Haro Strait. Of the five headsails we’d brought aboard our […]
Scientists finally know the clever tricks orca use to hunt whale sharks New, unprecedented images reveal how orca take down the largest species of fish on Earth. For the first time, scientists have captured video evidence of orcas cooperatively hunting whale sharks, the largest species of fish on Earth. This graphic footage […]
Ships tune in to underwater sounds, using acoustics technology to protect vulnerable marine giants. By Brianna Randall, published in Reasons To Be Cheerful On a gray morning this past March, a half-dozen scientists scanned the sea while bobbing offshore of Chile’s Atacama Desert. When an enormous whale surfaced, their small […]
Could plankton unlock the secrets of human biology? Scientists use new technology to sequence the DNA of microscopic ocean creatures for the first time By Brianna Randall Off the west coast of Greenland, a 17-metre (56ft) aluminium sailing boat creeps through a narrow, rocky fjord in the Arctic twilight. The research […]
Sailing Montana’s Flathead Lake After we left our catamaran in the Bahamas, I had to find my sailing fix closer to home. By Brianna Randall Tiller between my legs, I hold the finicky jib sheet in one hand and my sparkling water in the other. Sueños picks up speed like a horse […]
How girl (and pedal) power helped us finish a 750-mile race to Alaska A trio of mothers in their mid-40s were among more than 100 intrepid sailors in a motley armada sailing the unpredictable and spectacular Inside Passage in the Pacific Northwest. By Brianna Randall in the Pacific Ocean As we […]
The insect world’s most successful hunters show how the toxic metal moves through our environment—and how we can reduce our exposure. Dragonflies, those colorful bugs zooming around like mini-helicopters, are more than just a spectacular sight. These iridescent predators may also be the best way to detect where and how […]
The Indigenous community-owned Chalalán Ecolodge offers family adventures and rare wildlife encounters in the Bolivian Amazon. We heard the snorts first, echoing like gunshots through the sauna-thick air. Then eight heads jack-in-the-boxed out of the lake near our dugout canoe. “Wow, giant otters!” whispered Gilder Macuapa, our guide at Chalalán Ecolodge in […]