Courageous, entrepreneurial and quietly formidable, Julie Church has spent three decades working to protect the marine life of the Western Indian Ocean, from the Red Sea to South Africa. As founder and CEO of Seas4Life, she now translates that commitment into carefully designed sea safaris: journeys that place guests in direct contact with the ocean and the people fighting for its future.
A fourth-generation Kenyan, Julie grew up between Nairobi, Lake Naivasha and the coast. Her parents took the family on safari through Kenya and Tanzania, giving her an instinctive understanding of wild places long before conservation became a career. She later read Geography and African Studies at Sussex, before completing a master’s in environmental studies at the University of Cape Town.
Her ocean career began with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN, on the Tanga Coastal Zone Conservation and Development Project in Tanzania. Over six months, the team mapped more than 90 coral reefs and their fish populations from Tanga to the Kenyan border. “At the time, the reefs were being dynamited,” Julie recalls. “I remember snorkelling in the area and relating it to swimming over a destroyed city.”
That experience was followed by Indonesia, where she worked as Lead Scientific Officer for Coral Cay Conservation. Fishers were using cyanide and dynamite to supply the Hong Kong and Chinese fish markets. Julie and her team collected data with local communities and volunteers, later sharing their findings with the Indonesian government. “It was a magical time,” she says, “and one where a few of us set a goal to identify up to 1,000 fish.”
Left: Annual coral reef monitoring with recently trained community members in Kiunga Marine National Reserve (2002).
Right: Ocean Sole combats marine plastic pollution by transforming discarded flip-flops into sculptures and art, while creating sustainable livelihoods for Kenyan artisans and communities.
In 1997, her dream job appeared almost by chance. WWF, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service, needed someone to work between land and sea on Kenya’s northern coast, near the Somali border. As Project Executant, Julie covered an area roughly the size of Dorset, including the Kiunga Marine National Reserve. “This was more than just a conservation effort,” she explains. “It blended environmental protection with community empowerment.”
Her time in the field was almost ended in 1999, when she was gored by a wounded buffalo while photographing butterflies. Her mother and uncle found her and rushed her to hospital. She flatlined on the way, suffered kidney failure and spent two weeks in an induced coma. It took a year to walk without a stick and three more before she could run.
As soon as she was able, Julie returned to Kiunga. Alongside conservation, she coordinated education and health initiatives, supporting more than 40 children a year through secondary school and working with AMREF to provide vaccinations and maternal care. It was there that she noticed local women making cushions, and children making toys from discarded flip-flops and plastic found on the beach. Julie encouraged them to create marine animals, connecting the community’s craft to the ocean and to potential buyers.
A Swiss WWF representative then placed an order for 10,000 key rings. The challenge forced the artisans to raise quality and consistency, and Julie’s “trash to trade” idea gathered momentum. Later, with Taharinii BwanaAli, Julie founded UniqEco, which became Ocean Sole in 2013. By the time she left in 2016, the business employed more than 30 people and had recycled half a million flip-flops. “I feel very proud of what Ocean Sole has become,” she says, “and what it has achieved in terms of connecting waste to income.”
Left: Close encounter with a whale shark in the waters of Mafia Island, Tanzania. Organised by Kitu Kiblu, a partner company of Seas4Life, which offers ethical and respectful encounters with whale sharks while supporting marine conservation and local development projects.
Right: Scuba diving with Seas4Life in the Seychelles Outer Islands. Marine life commonly spotted in these waters includes hawksbill tur- tles, thread fin butterfly fish and orange basslet (Anthias fish).
Seas4Life grew from another act of determination. In 2019, Julie took part in Cycle4Seas, a 600km charity ride raising funds for marine protected areas in Kenya. When the ride’s founder, a close friend, died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash later that year, Julie’s resolve hardened. Seas4Life became an ocean-based experiential travel company, creating bespoke journeys from the Red Sea to Madagascar. Guests may witness the Sardine Run in South Africa, learn about sea turtles with former poachers, explore the Spice Islands by sea or paddleboard alongside dolphins. “When you are living these experiences,” Julie says, “you start to learn the value of the ocean.”
The Seas4Life Foundation is developing an Ocean Literacy programme in Kenya to spotlight regional scientists, conservationists and experts. “We need to make sure that people fall in love with the sea,” Julie says. “Because without our oceans, we don’t have a planet to live on.”
The focus remains the Western Indian Ocean, the second most biodiverse coral reef region in the world after Raja Ampat in Indonesia. It is also home to some of East Africa’s most vulnerable coastal communities. “That is where I felt we could have the most impact,” Julie explains. For her, the task is clear: to make guests value marine life as deeply as they value elephants or rhinos. “They are not just tourists,” she says. “They are our partners, our ambassadors.”
Despite everything she has achieved, Julie is far from finished. “There is still so much to do,” she says. “I want Seas4Life to be the sea safari conservation organisation that connects people to the Western Indian Ocean through the most amazing experiences, in the most sustainable way.”
It is an ambitious vision. But Julie Church has built a life out of turning impossible things into movement.
Author: Julia Pasarón
Our Editor-In-Chief took an epic journey to Kenya with her family, organised by Seas4Life step by step. Her once-in-a-lifetime family adventure begins HERE.
Lead image: Julie Church working with Ocean Sole in 2016.
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