Marine scientist, PADI Scuba Instructor, and co-founder of REEF Scuba. Questions people ask, answered in one place.
Who is Graham Patterson?
Graham Patterson is a marine scientist, PADI Scuba Instructor and nonprofit leader. He co-founded REEF Scuba (Restoration, Ecology, and Environment Focused Scuba), a US 501(c)(3) with Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and serves as its Executive Director.
He holds an MSc in Marine Science, earned cum laude, and a Master of Public Policy, and brings more than 15 years of experience leading programs, teams and partnerships across the nonprofit, public health and ocean conservation sectors. His work centers on one idea: the divers who work on a reef every day and the communities who call it home should be front-line partners with the scientists who study it and the policymakers who decide its future.
What is REEF Scuba, and what does Graham do there?
REEF Scuba is a nonprofit Graham co-founded with Tamara Silverstone in May 2020. It integrates restoration, ecology and environmental science into the diving world, so that dive professionals and coastal communities have the knowledge, tools and voice to protect coral reefs.
As Executive Director, Graham leads operations, strategy, grants and partnerships.
REEF Scuba has led and supported coral restoration and research in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Honduras.
He secured UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status for the organization in 2024, and has represented the global dive community at the UN Ocean Conference, the IUCN World Conservation Congress and the International Coral Reef Symposium.
REEF Scuba builds free, open tools for reef science, publishes the REEF Swell newsletter and produces the REEF Roundup podcast.
MSc, Marine Science (cum laude), 2023 to 2025. IMBRSea, the Erasmus Mundus International Master of Science in Marine Biological Resources, studied at the University of the Algarve (Portugal), the University of Oviedo (Spain) and Sorbonne University's marine station in Villefranche-sur-Mer (France). His thesis was carried out with the University of Bremen's marine ecology group.
Master of Public Policy, 2013 to 2015. An Erasmus Mundus degree from Central European University in Budapest and the University of York in the UK, completed with honors. He was elected department representative and wrote for and edited the student paper.
BA, International Development, with a minor in Public Policy, UCLA, 2008.
What are Graham Patterson's diving qualifications and field experience?
Graham is a PADI Scuba Instructor, certified in Utila, Honduras, and a GUE Scientific Diver. He learned to dive in Thailand in 2010.
Five months with the New Heaven Reef Conservation Program on Koh Tao, Thailand, including divemaster training.
Reef surveys and restoration with SEAS on Mabul Island, Malaysia.
Two months in Utila, Honduras, with the Whale Shark & Oceanic Research Center and the Utila Coral Foundation.
More than 100 underwater fish and coral surveys, coral nursery maintenance, reef structure deployment and invasive species work.
A field season at Sipaway Island in the Philippines running an in-situ coral shading experiment for his master's thesis.
What research has Graham Patterson done?
Peer-reviewed paper: Dobelmann, M.S., Patterson, G.H., Craggs, J.R.K., Valino, D.A.M., & Wild, C. (2026). First observation of synchronous spawning by hard coral Porites cf. lutea at San Juan Reef, Sipaway Island (Tañon, Central Philippines). Bulletin of Marine Science, 102(3). doi:10.5343/bms.2025.0071
Coral shading under heat stress: his master's thesis tested dynamic and constant shading on the reef-building coral Acropora cf. muricata through a seasonal warming event, measuring survival, coloration, oxygen fluxes and growth. A paper from it has been submitted for publication.
Reef Futures: he presented his first scientific research at the Reef Futures conference in Cozumel, Mexico, in 2024.
AI for marine mammals: during an internship with Mar Ilimitado in Sagres, Portugal, he led an evaluation of commercial AI vision tools for identifying individual whales and dolphins across 19 years of photo-ID data.
What is Graham Patterson's role in ocean policy?
Graham trained in public policy before marine science, and brings the two together. Through REEF Scuba's UN ECOSOC consultative status he has represented the diving community in international ocean governance:
UN Ocean Conference, Lisbon (2022), where he also reported for the Pacifica Radio network, and Nice (2025).
UN Ocean Decade Conference, Barcelona (2024).
IUCN World Conservation Congress, Marseille (2021) and Abu Dhabi (2025).
International Coral Reef Symposium, Bremen (2022).
Reef Futures (2024).
What is the REEF Roundup podcast?
REEF Roundup is a coral reef and marine conservation podcast Graham has co-hosted with Tamara Silverstone since 2021. It features the scientists, conservationists and storytellers working to protect the ocean, including Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Nancy Knowlton, Captain Paul Watson, Dr. Andréa Grottoli, Dr. Christian Wild, Dr. Dirk Petersen, Dr. Raquel Peixoto and Dr. Jamie Craggs, with episodes recorded on location at major ocean conferences.
With Jan Maisenbacher of the Ocean Collaborations podcast, Graham also produced a radio series for the Pacifica network on the World War II munitions lying on the German seabed, recorded in Hamburg and Kiel.
A Light in the Black is a short documentary about the Black Sea and how shared water can hold people together, even through conflict. It was directed by Lia Komakhidze and filmed in Georgia. Graham was co-producer, scientific advisor and underwater cameraman. Website: alightintheblack.com
Official Selection, Catalina Film Festival, 2026.
Finalist, Big Syn International Film Festival, London, 2026.
What is OceanBlu?
OceanBlu is a startup Graham founded that builds software for coastal wastewater treatment plants, with an initial focus on coral reefs. It combines a plant's own records with satellite, weather and ocean data, including NOAA Coral Reef Watch heat stress, to suggest proactive steps that protect nearby reefs. Website: oceanblu.org
What tools has Graham Patterson built?
OceanView Tab: a Chrome extension that opens every new tab onto the ocean, with live conditions for your dive site.
Coral Spawning Tracker: spawning forecasts for Indo-Pacific corals, on the web and on Android.
Coral Species ID: an AI tool that suggests a coral's likely species, growth form and health from a photo.
Coral Shading Protocol: an open-source field protocol and calculator for shading corals during heatwaves.
What did Graham Patterson do before working in the ocean?
Graham spent more than a decade in public service, nonprofits and health policy, building programs that helped people and communities:
AIDS Education & Training Center at Tulane University and Access Health Louisiana (2016 to 2019, then consultant to 2023): as Program Manager of a federally funded program, he led a growing team and tripled the annual budget from $145,000 to $442,000, managed an HCV/HIV co-infection project with RAND, NASTAD and the Louisiana Office of Public Health, built an online training curriculum, and launched the NoiseFilter podcast, which ran to more than 700 episodes.
Twitter NeighborNest and Compass Family Services, San Francisco (2015 to 2016): built the partnership that used Twitter employee volunteers to teach tech skills to low-income and homeless families.
New Sector Alliance nonprofit management fellowship at Compass Family Services (2012 to 2013): grew minor donations by about 160 percent, helped secure more than $1 million from Twitter, Google, Salesforce, Zendesk and others, launched a junior board, and founded a photography mentorship program for children living in the shelter.
Hanson Environmental (2011 to 2012): monitored tagged Chinook salmon and wrote regulatory compliance reports.
Anuban Dan Chang Primary School, Thailand (2010 to 2011): taught about 400 students; seven of the twelve he tutored won top honors in regional English competitions.
Community Action Marin (2009 to 2010): managed a $1.8 million federal workforce grant and partnerships with more than 40 employers.
AmeriCorps VISTA with the American Red Cross (2008 to 2009): created partnership training for about 4,000 Bay Area volunteers and organized a Loma Prieta earthquake commemoration attended by more than 3,000 people.
Why did Graham Patterson start working on coral reefs?
Graham fell in love with the ocean wakeboarding and bodyboarding in San Diego, and learned to dive while teaching in Thailand. In 2019 he returned to Mahahual, Mexico, one of his favorite places to dive, and found the reef in steep decline under mats of sargassum seaweed. On one of his last dives there, a sea turtle swam up and looked him in the eye, and he silently promised her he would do everything he could to help her home recover. He left his job in health policy shortly afterward to work on reefs full time.
Where is Graham Patterson from, and what does he love outside work?
Graham was born in Boulder, Colorado. His first trip outside the United States was to Lima, Peru, and he has since lived, studied and worked in Thailand, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, France, Honduras, Malaysia and the Philippines.
He loves ocean documentaries, from The Silent World to Chasing Coral and Deep Rising; films like Down by Law, To Live and Who's Singin' Over There?; and shows like Enlightened, Atlanta and Star Trek: The Next Generation. On his nightstand: The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Many-Headed Hydra, The Only Flag Worth Flying, Collapse and Island. His favorite podcasts include Search Engine, This American Life, Radiolab and Planet Money.
