Grant writing, fundraising, field video, public education and audience growth from my conservation work on the California coast.
By Alexis Noelle Galasso, founder of Salt + Noelle
alexisnoelle@saltnoelle.com · (412) 799-3549
The interactive version has the reel, field videos and live social posts playing in place. Scan, or visit saltnoelle.com/marine-portfolio
I work out of a studio on Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, where the sea lions on the docks are my closest neighbors. I spent 15 years in music and entertainment, including six at Universal Music Group and four at Apple Music, before starting Salt + Noelle in 2025.
These days I run marketing and development for Sea Otter Savvy alongside field documentation and work for coastal clients. I hold one of three Certified Wildlife Steward photography certifications awarded through Sea Otter Savvy. Griffin Museum of Photography Executive Director Crista Dix selected my photograph of Profile Point, made from a boat off Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park, for Enduring Ground: America's National Parks, the museum's juried 2026 online exhibition. It was one of 56 images chosen for the online show from more than 740 submitted by 258 artists.
Sea Otter Savvy is a women-led, scientist-run 501(c)(3) in Moss Landing and the only organization in the world solely dedicated to reducing human-caused disturbance to sea otters. I've led its marketing and development since March, from grant writing and donor systems to events and merch.
“Alexis has demonstrated a rare ability to bridge the gap between science and public engagement.”
Gena Bentall, Executive Director, Sea Otter Savvy
California sea lions, southern sea otters and northern elephant seals, filmed along the California coast under Admire from Afar™, my telephoto-only documentation method. Every shot comes from a distance chosen so the animals carry on without reacting to me, and the reel is cut in Final Cut Pro.
youtu.be/n2J0HhCY_Xc
My own Salt + Noelle posts alongside the collaborations I've made with Sea Otter Savvy.
Eight live posts from @seaottersavvy and Salt + Noelle play on the interactive version. Scan the code or visit saltnoelle.com/marine-portfolio to see them in full.
Gingerbread, the first northern elephant seal pup of the 2025–2026 season at Piedras Blancas, has passed 16,000 views on YouTube, and the Channel Islands Harbor sea lion pup video is close behind at nearly 15,000.
My Sea Otter Awareness Week 2026 post shares the event lineup put together by the week's six organizing groups, including Sea Otter Savvy, Monterey Bay Aquarium and The Marine Mammal Center, and builds on it with year-round resources like sea otter cams.
It also shares Sea Otter Savvy's viewing best practices: stay at least five kayak lengths away, use binoculars or a long lens, and back off if an otter looks at you, shifts position or dives, backed by a 2025 Journal of Wildlife Management study on disturbance distances.
saltnoelle.com/blog/sea-otter-awareness-week-2026
When a zoo video of Punch the monkey went viral, the zoo's traffic surged and a toy sold out worldwide. The piece asks how much of that attention reaches the organizations actually keeping animals alive, and what viewers can do about it.
Read the post
A photo essay on the annual molt at Piedras Blancas, when the elephant seals shed their fur along with the top layer of skin each May.
Read the postI produced the organization's 10th anniversary fundraiser in Santa Cruz end to end, from booking National Geographic photographer Ralph Pace and artist Josie Iselin as speakers to venue coordination, Zeffy ticketing and the silent auction. To promote it, I researched free ad placements, mapped flyer locations and organized volunteers to distribute them. With giving QR codes placed around the venue and a donation add-on built into ticketing, more than 50 people gave online, most of them new to the organization. State Senator John Laird presented a Certificate of Recognition.
I wrote the anniversary release, from the headline and Gena's quote to the speaker bios and a ready-to-post social snippet for partners. The Santa Cruz Sentinel ran it in its Coast Lines column the day before the event.
I built the organization's first dedicated online and recurring giving platform on Zeffy, with zero platform fees. More than 65 donors give through it.
I launched the store and plan its merch around the conservation calendar, from the Respect the Nap line to a Sea Otter Awareness Week 2026 collection. The same setup handles pop-up merch for events.
My own storefront for fine art prints and Admire from Afar apparel, with fulfillment through Prodigi for prints and Printful for apparel. Sales help fund Ocean of Opportunity, my pro bono program for small conservation nonprofits.
A satirical college merch brand I built from the ground up, from the name and identity to the catalog. It's also where I publish the stranger side of natural history: I restore public-domain plates of odd ocean life and other strange nature and put them back in front of people as prints and apparel.
Salt + Noelle started with a snow globe and seashell logo I built myself. I took that concept to a UK-based illustrator with a written brief and art-directed the full kit through several rounds of revisions. The Admire from Afar badge came out of the same process: a photographer with a long lens, a seal turned away, and open water between them, so the distance itself carries the message.
The marks now run across my site, stickers, merch and photo watermarks.
Since February 2025, saltnoelle.com has drawn more than 128,000 visitors and 328,000 page views from over 180 countries, largely through TikTok and Google campaigns I ran on $7 a day or less. Salt + Noelle's social channels have passed 26,000 followers combined.
The Facebook page grew from 988 followers in May 2025 to 19,906 at the end of October 2026. Since January it has added about 6,250 followers organically while most of my time went to Sea Otter Savvy and client work.
On YouTube the channel has 6,110 subscribers across 51 videos, and lifetime views rose from 43,793 in mid-April to 72,281 at the end of October.
Facebook followers, up 20x in 18 months
I'm currently based at Channel Islands Harbor and open to relocating to coastal markets. If this work fits what you need, I'd like to hear from you.
