Wacky Whales & Tuff Ruffy follows two traveling whales who return home to New Zealand’s Chatham Rise and rally a lively community of sea creatures to save their damaged ocean habitat. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration for the story came from interacting with Bubble Buddies Bay, an organization based in Europe that focuses on educating young souls about the world’s oceans and waterways, why they are important to protect and heal, and how to care for them. The organization hosts the SplashFest! Awards to recognize creative storytelling through prose, film, and script. I am honored to have won the Ocean Scroll Award this year for The Adventures of Willow & Oliver, a story about wildlife coming together to save a river running through their canyon home. This gave me the idea to create a story specifically about the world’s oceans, and OUALA! Wacky Whales & Tuff Ruffy came to life!

New Zealand has one of the largest populations of orange roughy in the world, and it isn’t mentioned too often. I thought it was about time. You see, the ancient continent of Zealandia is about 95% submerged. New Zealand is all we see on the surface. There’s a whole other world beneath the waves. 

The oldest orange roughy was caught off the coast of Tasmania and was estimated to be about 250 years old. Because these fish live so long, they accumulate a lot of mercury and other chemicals in their bodies. Still, overfishing is decimating their numbers because roughies do not reproduce until about age 30.

The Māori people settled New Zealand from Polynesia centuries ago. They nurture a deep spiritual connection with the land, the ocean, and each other. You simply cannot talk about New Zealand without including the Māori people and their culture.

All of these items I’ve mentioned played a role in shaping the narrative for Wacky Whales & Tuff Ruffy. It was an amazing process, and I am honored that the story chose me to put it into words and images.

How did you balance the book’s humor and fast-paced adventure with serious environmental issues?

I began with a short list of environmental issues to address, choosing ones that young people can easily understand. Then, I narrowed the list down to two or three issues. After the main characters emerge, I pondered how they would play off one another to make a humorous, interesting, and fun narrative while working the environmental issues into the plot. In this story, I think most of the humor comes from the subplots. In the end, it’s teamwork that resolves the issues.

Which character was the most enjoyable or challenging to create, and why?

Each character has their own interesting quirks and attitudes, making it hard to answer honestly. If I have to choose, I think Klarney, the crab, was the most enjoyable to create because of his mischievous nature, ego, and determination. He strides along the outer edges of acceptable societal norms while miraculously maintaining loyal, often annoying, relationships within the Chatham Rise community. 

The most challenging character to create was probably Crescendo, the blue whale protagonist. While he is fearful of humans and the harm they can cause, he is forced to trust them to save his partner, Echo, from the fishing net. Reining in his nerves must have been a Herculean effort for him. Then, Crescendo has this incredible talent and desire to sing and keep life fun. So after the sonar waves temporarily deafen him, it must have driven him nuts when everyone told him to stop yelling. Yeh, there’s a lot going on with that guy, inside and out.

What research did you conduct into marine conservation, fishing practices, and damaged seabeds while developing the story?

Research is always my next favorite part, right after writing the story. I learn so much. I began by looking into conservation organizations such as Oceana, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, The Ocean Cleanup, Ocean Conservancy, Marine Conservation Society, and many others. 

These organizations offer free information on nearly everything related to the world’s oceans. I wish every person on the planet would access this information and act on it. 

I feel it is extremely important to educate young people from an early age about what is happening to the oceans and marine life. They can’t start too early thinking about how they might deal with the issues as they grow older.

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