About Jim Hart

Lover of the Oceans

Jim Hart is a published photographer and Oceanographer who ,since 1981, has led recreational, scientific and research expeditions worldwide. Through his studies at Louisiana State University in oceanography, and via extensive travel, Jim's adventures across the planet allowed him to follow his childhood passion for conservation of the ocean and marine life.

After graduation, he lived and worked in Europe for several years in the petroleum field. In 1976, he spent two years hitchhiking, circumnavigating the Earth, spending much of the time exploring Asia, Borneo and sailing across Indonesia. He returned to the U.S. in 1978 and became an award-winning builder, developing petroleum facilities and resort projects in Belize. In 1987, he designed and patented the first electronic underwater communication device for divers.

Jim later earned a professional certification in Volunteer Administration from the University of Colorado and helped design programs for, and then manage, 1,300 volunteer naturalists and divers at the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. While there, he created and led reef water quality research expeditions for the United Nations, designed and conducted sea turtle protection protocols for the Army Corps of Engineers, and developed ocean awareness educational programs for schools in Central America. Those ocean awareness educational programs became the seed for the " Connecting conservation with creativity" programs,he would later develop with Anne for African Children.

Oceanographic Expeditions

Jim started Oceanographic Expeditions LLC in 1995 to enable volunteer divers from public aquariums across the U.S. to become involved in ongoing marine research and conservation programs. That year, he was among the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Advisory board members who established the first Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico. As a member of the Global Interactive Marine Animal Experience Council, he helped establish parameters and guidelines for shark, manta ray, manatee and porpoise interactive experiences around the world. Today, he is an also an active member of the East African Environmental Education Board of Directors.

In 1996, working with the Aquarium of the Americas, the US Department of Marine Fisheries and Walkers Cay Marine park, he developed and organized the world's first electronic tagging/scanning program for Sharks in the wild.

Also, in 1996, Jim planned and implemented the first hemispheric study of mass coral spawning ,"Project Reef Spawn," which involved 200 volunteer divers, night diving simultaneously across the Western Hemisphere to discover more about how coral reproduction works in the Atlantic basin. A year later, he was asked to address the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to discuss the role of volunteers in scientific research. Jim later established the first coral growth study in Panama, and in 2010 he helped to develop Marine Sanctuaries in Tanzania.

Jim has published scientific papers on mass coral spawning , black tip shark reproduction ,and lobster tagging in the Western hemisphere, filmed shark feeding habits, studied white sharks in South Africa and whale sharks off Tanzania, and led numerous conservation and biological study expeditions to Central America, Micronesia, southern Africa and Egypt.

Dive Instructor

Jim is also a P.A.D.I. Divemaster who, in 1991, was one of the Co-founders of the American Association of Diving Program Administrators. As president of that national organization of Aquarium diving staff for it's first eight years, he worked to expand the membership to include aquariums internationally and is now the largest such organization in the world. In 2020, the Association of diving program administrators created an annual award in Jim's name honoring his contributions to the profession of Diving Program Administration.

Jim often volunteers with the Diveheart Foundation, an organization that teaches diving to disabled veterans and children, and then takes participants on diving expeditions. In 2009, he trained and guided the first blind, deaf and mute diver through a dive expedition to Mexico. He was a contributor to Diveheart's new "Adaptive Diver Manual," which has become the bible of teaching divers how to train and work with divers with disabilities.

A Shared Passion

Jim met Anne London in Zanzibar, in 2009 while working on a marine park project in Tanzania. Their relationship blossomed and Anne's passion for land animal conservation changed his focus from marine conservation to wildlife conservation programs. Sharing Anne's desire to make the planet a better place, he and Anne continue to work with disabled veterans and children both with Diveheart and New Heights, a therapeutic riding facility near their home in Louisiana. In 2013 ,together they founded Arts for Animals and today jim continues as the executive Director of this worldwide nonprofit conservation education organization.

In 2020, Jim was recognized for his groundbreaking oceanographic work to further human knowledge of the oceans and inducted as a" fellow",into the international Explorers club, founded in 1904 in New York City. The international Explorers club's membership is a who's who of all the most famous explorers in history. From Sir Edmund Hillary, to Thor Hyderdall, Sylvia Earle, Robert Ballard, Jacques Cousteau, and many of the astronauts and scientists exploring our world today. Jim was incredibly honored to join these explorers in preserving the spirit of human exploration.

From the hidden valleys of Afghanistan and the mountains of Nepal, to the depths of the Red Sea and reefs of Palau, Jim has explored and photographed much of this planet and its cultures and wildlife. His photographs, artwork and videos have appeared in the Washington Post, several wildlife conservation and SCUBA diving magazines, National Marine Sanctuary publications and on national broadcast television. His "Thermonuclear art" and municipal, acoustic art piece entitled "The Singing Oak" have earned him artistic praise in the New Orleans area.

View SIGNING OAK video

Jim feels blessed to be a part of Arts For Animals and its work. "It's amazing to me how many of my past experiences with marine conservation issues prepared me for what I am doing today," he says. "The key to preserving the wildlife of our planet- whether on islands in the Pacific, across the plains of Africa or in the forests of Asia -lies in the minds of local children !" Since retiring from his other business ventures in 2012, Jim continues to volunteer as executive Director of Arts for Animals making annual visits to Africa to work with Arts For Animals Partners and deliver program materials from the United States.