Gaelin Rosenwaks is a marine scientist, explorer, photographer, filmmaker and author. She began her career at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducting research in Antarctica and then earned her Master’s Degree in Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University researching Giant Bluefin Tunas. Alarmed by the changes happening in the oceans, Gaelin founded Global Ocean Exploration Inc. to share her passion for ocean exploration, marine conservation and storytelling. She conducts expeditions across the world’s oceans, showcasing the challenges facing these critical ecosystems. 

A Fellow of Royal Geographical Society and member of the Society of Women Geographers, Gaelin has published articles in scientific journals, newspapers and magazines and has delivered lectures at global conferences and many institutions. She has appeared as an expert and host on TV programs including on The Discovery Channel, Science Channel, CBS News, and National Geographic Channel, and is one of the few women to be featured on the cover of Outside Magazine. Her photography has been displayed in many exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at Duke University, The Maritime Aquarium, and the Patagonia Upper West Side Store in NYC. 

In May 2024, Gaelin joined fellow WINGS Flag Carrier Kiera Rumbough on a leg of her Kiera’s multi-year expedition, Apparent Winds. Together, they covered roughly 1,000 nautical miles from Charleston, SC, along the continental shelf to the Hudson Canyon before returning to shore in Montauk, NY. Gaelin and Kiera carried WINGS Flag #39 as they conducted a survey of wildlife along the continental shelf off of the east coast of the United States—aiming to add to the existing knowledge of species diversity and aid in the creation of the Hudson Canyon Marine Sanctuary designation. 

In March 2021, Gaelin carried Flag #29 on her expedition to Dominica to study and film sperm whales for Finding Physty, her film about a young male sperm whale that she met as a toddler when he was stranded and kept in captivity for nine days in a boat basin in Long Island, NY. Her project focuses on the interactions between young whales and their mothers, aunts and grandmothers in an effort to understand where Physty should have been when he found himself ill and stranded, and where he would be now, 40 years later, after being released back into the wild. This expedition to Dominica is the third in a series of Gaelin’s expeditions to reconnect with these incredible animals. Gaelin obtained a strict government permit to dive with these whales because she “wanted to understand the family dynamics of sperm whales and once again meet them eye to eye.”

To Gaelin, a licensed Coast Guard Captain, there is nothing better than being in the open ocean surrounded by endless blue water and passing wildlife. A childhood experience seeing a Sperm Whale led to reconnect with these ocean giants and to her first book of photography, Sperm Whales: The Gentle Goliaths of the Oceans (Rizzoli 2022). She is also completing a film, Finding Physty, about her personal connection to these majestic animals.