Emily McCulliss
Maui Whales & Ocean Tales

Visual Storytelling Platform ยท 2026-2027

Humpback Whales | Big Wave Surfing | Ocean Community

authentic ocean immersion / community / connection / education / inspiration

Maui Whales & Ocean Tales

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The Mission

Connect. Educate. Inspire.

Imagine discovering Maui's winter season from above, on, and below the water.

Humpback whales giving birth, mothers nursing their young, competitive mating pods, breaching giants, and surfers riding legendary swells.

Moments so extraordinary they transform how you see the ocean.
How you understand connection.
How you protect it.

Humpback whale
Take a Breath by Emily McCulliss

The Vision

Maui transforms, every winter. Humpback whales return from Alaska to raise their young. Big wave surfers await massive swells at breaks like Jaws. The ocean pulses with life, energy, and raw power.

For two seasons, I'm capturing it all - above the water, on the surface, and below - creating Maui Whales & Ocean Tales, a visual storytelling project you can own and be part of.

What Is Being Created?

This permitted project delivers:

What Your Support Accomplishes:

EDUCATION

Creating freely accessible content for Maui's teachers, tour industry, and conservation organizations - magazines, newsletters, and interactive resources that answer real questions through visual storytelling about whale behaviors, ocean ecosystems, and respectful coexistence.

INSPIRATION

Producing visual narratives that capture the magic of Maui's winter transformation - imagery so compelling it makes people pause, wonder, and feel connected to forces greater than themselves.

OCEAN COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Amplifying the voices of marine biologists, big wave surfers, watermen, Hawaiian ocean experts, and conservation professionals who truly know these waters - sharing their wisdom, passion, and reverence for this place.

OCEAN STEWARDSHIP

Transforming spectators into ocean stewards. When people understand what's happening beneath Maui's waves - why humpback mothers choose these waters, how the ocean ecosystem connects whales to waves to watermen - don't just admire the beauty. You feel compelled to protect it.

THIS LIFE-GIVING SEASON

Celebrating winter in Maui as a season of renewal, when ocean giants return to create new life, when legendary swells awaken, when the entire ecosystem pulses with energy and power.

Veins of the Earth by Emily McCulliss

Stay Close to the Work

The Wild Within Newsletter

Emily's work keeps growing - speaking engagements, new volumes, active field projects, and new expeditions opening each season. The mailing list is where all of it lands first.

Join, and she'll send the Wildlife Photography Guide: forty pages on light, focus, composition, and the presence that comes before all of it.